BUFFALO, N.Y. — Early Thursday, staff from Erie County and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation began investigating the reason behind hundreds of dead fish floating atop the Buffalo River.
"Occasionally you see dead fish, but nothing that big," Ray Lewandowski said.
Lewandowski reached out to the NYSDEC after noticing hundreds of dead fish in the river. Several days ago, he says, the problem wasn't that bad.
"I just saw some small fish along the shoreline, and it didn't seem like that much out of the ordinary," Lewandowski said. "But I decided to keep an eye on it."
In a statement, the DEC says that multiple divisions are investigation the cause.
"Staff from multiple DEC divisions, including the Division of Law Enforcement’s Bureau of Environmental Crimes Investigations (BECI), Division of Water, and Division of Natural Resources immediately began an investigation into the apparent fish kill at this location," the DEC said.
The DEC also said in the statement that there was no risk to the drinking water for the city of Buffalo.
2 On Your Side spoke to NYSDEC Water Specialist Jessie Schwallie at the scene as she gathered samples for testing.
Schwallie said that fish kill incidents aren't uncommon.
"Temperature is definitely a factor right now, " Schwallie said. "It could be from someone discharging something they're not supposed to."
Schwallie was clear to point out that it is too early for the DEC to determine the cause of this incident yet, but a timeline for determining that cause wasn't clear.
"It's hard to tell, we could find one thing and it'll lead us a different direction," Schwallie said.
The DEC says if you suspect an environmental crime to call the 24-hour dispatch at 1-844-DEC-ECOS.