New Erie Canal Harbor fouled by sewage overflow
Unsightly mix of waste and debris surfaces in rewatered Commercial Slip
Visitors to the newly opened Erie Canal Harbor, a $53 million makeover, are getting a glimpse of the Buffalo sewer system’s dirty little secret — sewer overflow.
A disgusting mix of “floatables” has surfaced in the harbor’s centerpiece — the 184-year-old, rewatered Commercial Slip — following recent heavy rains. The unsightly stew of human waste, cigarette butts, assorted garbage, twigs and branches flows into the historic slip through the Hamburg Drain, a key conduit in the Buffalo Sewer Authority’s wastewater control system.
“What was essentially a covered creek is now flowing out in the open, and at times it’s not very pretty,” said Sewer Authority General Manager David P. Comerford.
The slip also gets a backwash of similar debris from the Buffalo River, further complicating the problem.
The makeover of the historic harbor included installation of a recirculating pump and aeration system to deal with debris and odor at the slip, but Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp. Chairman Jordan A. Levy acknowledges “it isn’t a complete solution.”
“Everybody knew about the drain, and steps were taken to reduce the problem, but we didn’t know how well it would work until we got our first heavy rains,” Levy said.
While the pump system can move about 36,000 gallons of water per minute, pushing debris out of the slip into the Buffalo River, it doesn’t block overflow from entering the waterway. Harbor maintenance crews also manually skim debris to improve slip aesthetics, but Levy said more needs to be done.
“We’re trying to get visitors down there to experience the harbor, so we can’t have nasty stuff accumulating in there. We need to figure this out,” he added.
Combined sewer overflow is a long-standing, citywide problem that occurs about 50 times a year when storm water enters the sanitary sewer system. Surges of rainwater push the sanitary system to capacity. The excess flows into storm sewers, eventually dumping out into local waterways.
It’s estimated that 4 billion gallons of raw sewage and storm water pour out of Buffalo’s 58 combined sewer overflow outlets each year into the Buffalo River, creeks and marinas. The outlet of the massive Hamburg Drain, which carries overflow from Buffalo’s southeast neighborhoods, is located at the head of the Commercial Slip.
Comerford said the Sewer Authority is studying citywide options to reduce the impact of storm water on the sanitary sewer system, along with site-specific fixes. The authority plans to install a $10 million “floatable control facility” about a quarter-mile above the Hamburg Drain outlet.
“We would use a vertical trash rack to continuously screen the solid debris that comes through the drain before it gets to the slip. We could capture 99 percent of it that way,” Comerford said.
“The engineering is done, and we’d hope to build in 2009. We’re working with the Thruway Authority on an easement agreement to access the drain on their land,” Comerford said.
The Erie Canal Harbor’s sewer overflow woes might not be pleasant, but they increase awareness of a serious local problem, according to Julie Barrett O’Neill, president of Buffalo Riverkeeper.
“Because there’s been limited public access to the waterfront, only a few user groups have encountered what comes out of the storm water outlets,” O’Neill said. “Local fishermen and boaters have been witnesses to it for decades.”
“Screening the overflow is a Band-Aid solution. What we need to focus on is the amount of storm water going into the system,” O’Neill said.
Riverkeeper is urging individuals to take steps to reduce storm sewer flow by disconnecting their downspouts from storm drains, employing rain barrels to capture rainfall and using green roofing options.
