New York Sues Its Second Largest City Over Sewage Spills

Just when you thought things were starting to look up in New York State's second-largest city, the powers that be get hit with another blow that may cause ripples all around the city.

It's been less than a week since the City of Buffalo was hit with a big downgrade in its credit rating, and now we're learning that the city's Sewer Authority is being sued.

What's even more surprising is who is suing the City.

New York State Sues Buffalo Over Sewage

If you have spent any time in and around Buffalo, you might be quite familiar with the fact that, from time to time, the city stinks. Now, we don't mean stinks as in you don't like the city, but stinks as in a terrible smell that's emanating from Lake Erie and/or the Niagara River.

READ MORE: Severe Thunderstorms Cause Sewer Backups In Western New York

Like most older cities, Buffalo has what's called a combined sewer overflow (CSO) buried in the city. Sewage and other waste that comes from homes and businesses share the same underground pipes as rainwater that goes down the drains on the street. Those pipes lead all the way down to the city's wastewater treatment plant on Bird/Unity Island. According to data from New York State, Buffalo has the 4th largest treatment plant in the state, and it can treat around 560 million gallons of wastewater per day.

Whenever we get a lot of rain or other infiltration of water, everything that is in those pipes has to go somewhere. When the wastewater treatment plant gets overwhelmed, then that sewage has to go somewhere. Sometimes it backs up into our basements, but most of the time it gets released into the rivers, creeks, and streams.

Now, this might not be a big deal if it only happened every once in a while, but according to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, it happens a lot. And by a lot, we mean nearly 3 million gallons of untreated sewage end up in the waterways of Western New York every year.

Even though the city is in the middle of completing a multimillion-dollar upgrade to the facility, it's not enough, and this has led to the state filing a lawsuit against the city.