The City of Buffalo officials admit they literally have to clean up their mess with the discharge of raw sewage onto a public sidewalk in the 1500 block of Broadway on the East Side.
2 On Your Side first brought this story to you on Monday night. And on Tuesday we followed up at City Hall which said a repair project is in the works.
With contractor markings on the sidewalk we spotted Tuesday and no apparent water coming from the pipe running from the side of the firehall it appears the city has now finally pushed to repair this sewer leak for its own fire department building.
We saw a gush of water from the PVC discharge pipe as it was periodically pumping out water yesterday from Engine Company 22's building. ln essence it was raw sewage washing out on the sidewalk.
Nearby residents noticed the disgusting stench but were not fully aware of what it was coming from. 2 On Your Side actually had it tested and was told the fecal coliform bacteria level was ten times the proper limit for human contact.
We shared that with the head of the Buffalo Sewer Authority which operates the main sewer line under Broadway but not the actual broken sewer line. General Manager Oluwole McFoy: said, "These levels are high."
Reporter: Have you ever seen that before where the city of Buffalo rigs up a discharge like this?
McFoy: "Not that I have heard in my time."
Reporter: "So this is definitely a unique situation here?
McFoy: It is."
We went in search of answers for this setup to the city's public works department even as the city firefighters union told us they had noticed the sewer backup issues for the past two months. DPW Commissioner Nathan Marton told us "So the department's been working on the situation for a period of time - not a long period of time. But we've had some major issues with that sewer pop-up that we identified so we've been in the process of addressing it temporarily."
"We got a contractor on-site and they're prepared to do the work tomorrow. We're working with the DOT to get the permit - Broadway is a state route so we gotta get the permit to do that work. But our contractor is lined up to begin the actual sewer replacement - the lateral replacement tomorrow," Marton says.
But that temporary somewhat jury-rigged fix was maybe not good for the area. So Marton says there will be a full review.
"To see if there's a different process or different method that we could have used. We'll review top to bottom.
Reporter: So the hope is you would not see this situation at a city property again?
Marton: Right - from our perspective, we want to always maintain public safety and so we'll review kind of what happened, where we got to the point where we are now, and then how to best move forward."
The State DEC was also investigating here to see if there was any violation of environmental laws.
We will see if they are working on it tomorrow.