Six Lakes White Paper Released

Students at the Yale Environmental Justice Law and Advocacy Clinic worked with the Six Lakes Park Coalition (SLPC) throughout 2025 to dig deep into public records and accounts of the history of Six Lakes as well as the regulations, statutes, and policies at the federal and state level dictating the obligations of Olin Corporation, currently the owner of Six Lakes, and the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), which is overseeing Olin’s testing and site cleanup. The result of the Yale law clinic’s efforts on behalf of SLPC is a 40-page white paper, In Pursuit of Six Lakes Park: A Community’s Fight for Environmental Justice in Hamden, Connecticut. To read the full document, click below:

Download your copy of the Six Lakes White Paper

Don’t have time to read the whole white paper? You can also check out our one page summary here.

What is Six Lakes?

Six Lakes is a 102.5-acre parcel in Hamden, Connecticut. The property features mature forests, hiking paths, and six beautiful ponds. Home to deer, waterfowl, birds, fish, and turtles, its diverse habitats include a cattail marsh, a red maple swamp, and a 150-year-old oak-pine forest as well as wetlands that connect to the Regional Water Authority’s Lake Whitney water supply. Also known as Olin Powder Farm, the Six Lakes property is owned by the Olin Corporation. Olin and its predecessor, Winchester Arms, used the site for gunpowder storage and munitions testing. A 1986 consent decree from the CT Department of Energy and Environmental Protection ordered Olin to clean up industrial pollution on the property, a job that was only partially completed. Six Lakes is connected physically, hydrologically, and historically to the adjacent Newhall neighborhood, which underwent its own large-scale environmental cleanup by Olin beginning in the early 2000s, due to the advocacy efforts of community leaders.

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