ALABAMA, N.Y. — Oak Orchard Creek is considered Orleans County’s “lifeblood.”
Flowing south to north from Genesee County wetlands to Lake Ontario, it provides trophy salmon and trout a place to feed and spawn. The creek draws fishermen, $30 million in tourist spending, and around $100,000 in county revenue each year.
“Oak Orchard Creek is a huge — a huge — part of the fishery … it’s gigantic,” Lou Borrelli, captain of a fishing charter boat, told Investigative Post. “Generally speaking, most of the fish are going to be affected by the water quality because if it does get contaminated, that could have a huge effect on reproduction.”
Yet it’s here, in the Town of Shelby in Orleans County, that the Genesee County Economic Development Center wants to dump up to 6 million gallons of wastewater per day from its Science, Technology, and Advanced Manufacturing Park (STAMP). That’s the industrial park that Sen. Chuck Schumer, Gov. Kathy Hochul, and others are championing as a future home for thousands of high-tech jobs in rural Genesee County.