BUFFALO, N.Y. -- As rain moved through Western New York this weekend, some sewage systems couldn't keep up with the volume of water, resulting in discharges into local waterways.
According to the NY-Alert, there were 38 different discharges in our region between 2:03 a.m. and 1:27 p.m. on Sunday, as the heaviest rain moved through.
Those discharges resulted in 16,317,910 gallons of waste water getting dumped into local creeks, rivers and lakes.
These types of overflows aren't new; they've happened for years due to systems that combine storm runoff with raw sewage. After the storage systems are filled to capacity, the excess water is legally dumped into waterways.
"This is business as usual," said Jill Jedlicka, executive director of Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper, in a previous interview. "But it's important for people to know we have allowed sewage discharge into our waterways every day, ever week, every year."
2 On Your Side and Investigative Post reported last year how the City of Buffalo has about 800 discharges every year. That results in up to 4 billion gallons of sewage and storm water flowing into rivers, creeks and lakes in the City alone.
Niagara Falls has been a problem area in the past. At an event Monday to announce improvements to its Wastewater Treatment Plant since the July 2017 incident in which dark water flowed into the Niagara River, the Water Board also addressed this weekend's discharges.
"We use our pumps, and we pump at full capacity here," said Bob Dunn, chief operator at the plant. "When we can't take anymore here, we're able to overflow at those containment areas to save people's basements so we don't flood the city."
More than half of the weekend overflows happened in Kenmore, adding up to more than 1.6 million gallons of contaminated water going into 2 Mile Creek.
The Village has been upgrading its sewage system for a couple years, and as a result, residents were hit with a $120 surcharge back in 2016 to help pay for the improvements, which are ongoing.
Experts have said it will cost billions of dollars to do all the necessary infrastructure upgrades in Western New York to prevent these overflows from happening at the many different sewage treatment facilities in the area.
Work is underway to prevent sewage overflows in some spots, including Cheektowaga which got $5 million in state funding to cut back discharges into Scajaquada Creek.
Below is a breakdown of all the sewage overflows reported through NY-Alert on Sunday:
- Buffalo - 410,000 gallons into Niagara River
- Kenmore - 132,600 gallons into 2 Mile Creek
- Kenmore - 57,000 gallons into 2 Mile Creek
- Kenmore - 686,000 gallons into 2 Mile Creek
- Kenmore - 4,650 gallons into 2 Mile Creek
- Kenmore - 4,900 gallons into 2 Mile Creek
- Kenmore - 4,300 gallons into 2 Mile Creek
- Kenmore - 3,185 gallons into 2 Mile Creek
- Kenmore - 31,500 gallons into 2 Mile Creek
- Kenmore - 4,800 gallons into 2 Mile Creek
- Kenmore - 81,600 gallons into 2 Mile Creek
- West Seneca - 1,000,000 gallons into Buffalo River
- Tonawanda - 18,000 gallons into Ellicott Creek
- Kenmore - 4,800 gallons into 2 Mile Creek
- Tonawanda - 18,000 gallons into Ellicott Creek
- Kenmore - 4,800 gallons into 2 Mile Creek
- Creektowaga - 3,400,000 gallons into Scajaquada Creek
- Tonawanda - 18,000 gallons into 2 Mile Creek
- Kenmore - 225,750 gallons into 2 Mile Creek
- Kenmore - 264,000 gallons into 2 Mile Creek
- Kenmore - 4,800 gallons into 2 Mile Creek
- Kenmore - 6,720 gallons into 2 Mile Creek
- Kenmore - 31,680 gallons into 2 Mile Creek
- Cheektowaga - 1,000,000 gallons into Scajaquada Creek
- Kenmore - 17,760 gallons into 2 Mile Creek
- Hamburg (Southtowns AWTF ECSD #3) - 71,060 gallons into Lake Erie
- Kenmore - 4,255 gallons into 2 Mile Creek
- Kenmore - 52,250 gallons into 2 Mile Creek
- Kenmore - 5,280 gallons into 2 Mile Creek
- Kenmore - 1,470 gallons into 2 Mile Creek
- Kenmore - 1,250 gallons into 2 Mile Creek
- Niagara Falls - 720,000 gallons into Cayuga Creek
- Niagara Falls - 247,500 gallons into Cayuga Creek
- Dunkirk - 990,000 gallons into Lake Erie
- Niagara Falls - 2,420,000 gallons into the Lower Niagara River
- Niagara Falls - 4,250,000 gallons into the Lower Niagara River
- Concord - 5,000 to 10,000 gallons into Crump Brook