New York State DEC alleges millions of gallons of raw sewage discharged around city in lawsuit

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — The Buffalo Sewer Authority is being sued after the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation alleged that nearly three million gallons of “untreated sewage and runoff” are being discharged each year.

The affected bodies of water include Niagara River, Black Rock Canal, Erie Basin, Buffalo River, Scajaquada Creek and Cazenovia Creek, the DEC said. Around 2,900,000 gallons of sewage and runoff are allegedly discharged every year.

According to the DEC, the aforementioned “receiving waters” range from Class A to Class C water bodies, suitable for culinary or food processing, contact recreation, and fishing.

Discharges are caused by “wet weather events,” but deadlines for projects to control discharges during such events, included in a plan submitted by the BSA in 2014, were allegedly never met.

The DEC also said the BSA committed at least 11 violations of a permit between August 2024 and December 2024.

You can read the full lawsuit below.

In a statement, the BSA said they are working with the DEC to mitigate combined sewer discharges and are implementing the Queen City Clean Waters Initiative in an effort to meet water quality goals.

You can read the full statement here:

“Since 2014, Buffalo Sewer has been working in conjunction with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) in enacting a long term control plan (LTCP) to mitigate combined sewer discharges into area waterways.

Over the past decade it has become clear that some projects in the 2014 LTCP could not be constructed as envisioned and that the water quality goals would not be met through its completion.

At this time, we are implementing an effort announced in October 2024 – the Queen City Clean Waters Initiative – to improve our wastewater treatment and combined sewer overflow (CSO) systems to reduce these discharges to meet those water quality goals.

The Queen City Clean Waters initiative is a 15 year, one billion dollar plus effort to make various infrastructure improvements at over fifty sites across our service territory.  The Bird Island Wastewater Treatment Facility alone is in the midst of $250 million in infrastructure improvements that go above and beyond the requirements of the 2014 LTCP to include odor control as well as water treatment improvements.

We remain resolute in our mission of protecting the public health for our approximately 550,000 customers across our service territory and fulfilling our obligation in meeting all state and federal quality water standards.”