Buffalo NY: +/- 4 Billion Gallons/Year Raw Sewage & Stormwater Leak Into Watershed

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Depending on rainfall, the sewage lines managed by the Buffalo Sewer Authority spew between 1.75 billion and 4 billion gallons of raw sewage and stormwater into creeks and rivers each year. The wastewater fouls some of the city’s most popular waterfront destinations, including Canalside, Delaware Park, Broderick Park and Black Rock Canal Park.

“It’s important for people to know that [state environmental regulators] allow sewer discharges into our waterways every day, every week, every year,” said Jill Jedlicka, executive director of Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper.

Pressed by the federal Environmental Protection Agency, the sewer authority is in the early stages of a 20-year, $380 million program to significantly reduce sewer overflows by at least two-thirds. The sewer authority has already completed about 35 projects in the past four years, reducing, but not eliminating, discharges into the Buffalo River, Black Rock Canal, Scajaquada Creek and Cazenovia Creek.

The authority estimates that a half-billion gallons of sewage and stormwater will continue to gush into creeks and rivers even after all of the work, involving some 75 projects, is completed in 2034. “When we are done with this we will have reduced it so that it doesn’t have any effect on water quality,” said OJ McFoy, the general manager of the Buffalo Sewer Authority.

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http://www.investigativepost.org/2017/11/21/sewage-inundating-buffalo-waterways/