About the Case
A 102.5-acre expanse of wetlands, forest, and glacial ponds sits at the southern edge of Hamden, Connecticut, fenced off from the public. For nearly a century, the Winchester Repeating Arms Company followed by the Olin Corporation used this property, known locally as “Six Lakes,” to test weapons, store gun powder, and dispose of industrial waste left over from munitions manufacturing at the Winchester factor in Newhallville.
Today, toxic substances remain throughout the site, which stretches between Hamden’s Newhall neighborhood to the south (itself built atop contaminated industrial fill and the subject of successive State-supervised environmental cleanups) and the Lake Whitney drinking water reservoir to the north. The popular Farmington Canal Trail borders the property’s western fenceline.
In 1986, the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (now the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, or DEEP) entered a legally binding agreement with Olin—a Consent Order—requiring Olin to investigate and clean up the contamination at Six Lakes. Forty years later, Olin has remediated only a small fraction of the site. The extent of the contamination and remediation needs remain unknown.
In 2020, the Six Lakes Park Coalition formed to bring together neighbors, non-profits, and other stakeholders to envision and realize a public-serving future for Six Lakes. In spring 2025, the Six Lakes Park Coalition engaged the Clinic to assist the Coalition in its efforts.
In October 2025, the Clinic, on behalf of the Six Lakes Park Coalition, published a white paper titled “In Pursuit of Six Lakes Park: A Community’s Fight for Environmental Justice in Hamden, Connecticut,” to document the site’s history, analyze the legal requirements for remediation, and chart a path forward to give local residents a voice in the cleanup process. The white paper chronicles “decades of environmental harm” at the Hamden property. On October 21, 2025, Clinic students presented the white paper at an annual community meeting in Hamden together with Six Lakes Park Coalition founder and former Hamden Legislative Council member Justin Farmer and State officials.
Read the white paper, In Pursuit of Environmental Justice (Oct. 2025)
Read about the October 21, 2025 Community Meeting in the New Haven Independent