BRO submission by Scajaquada Jack:
The water quality of Hoyt Lake and Scajaquada Creek has been on the minds, and in the noses, of the hundreds of volunteers who cleaned Scajaquada Creek on April 18th.
There is a nasty fecal smell around Scajaquada Creek's emergence along the North Bay S-dam and by the Elmwood Avenue bridge. It seems obvious that there are water quality issues that need to be looked at in relation to Scajaquada Creek overflowing into Hoyt Lake, due to its discharge being plugged by a "sludge island" at the west end of the Scajaquada underground diversion. The sludge is so thick that a person's weight can be supported across its width, as one of the volunteers at the clean-up walked from the south Creek slope, across the sludge, to the S-dam.
This brings up several immediate questions: Who is responsible for assessing the water quality, and maintaining the Creek flow? Who is responsible for sludge removal/dredging the Creek? How soon can it get done, so that the Creek doesn't plug up into the underground section causing overflows into Hoyt Lake? This would seem to need to be immediately addressed, this summer.
Going forward, perhaps there should be a Summit of the Scajaquada, including the Hoyt Lake issues, that can begin to finally sort out the mess of Scajaquada. This could help to answer questions like: What are the upstream hydrological inputs to the Scajaquada Creek that make it so nasty anyways? Can combined sewer overflows and special discharge permits inputs into the Creek upstream, be treated at the point source by other means, like constructed wetlands, in vacant property on the East side of Buffalo and in Cheektowaga/Lancaster? Can highway discharges be filtered so that road salt and car fluids are not getting into the Creek and Lake? How will the Rt. 198 downgrading into a Parkway best contribute to water quality and recreation along the Park and Trail System? Do we need the finger dam at Peter Street? How can the vast buried cultural and historical uniqueness of the Park, Trail and Creek be best unearthed, illustrated, interpreted and celebrated? These and a myriad of other issues need be addressed proactively considering the abundance of projects proposed and underway from Main Street to the Black Rock Channel along the route of the Scajaquada:
1. Buffalo State expansion-desire to use (contaminated) City Auto impound for stadium/Scajaquada waterfront, and other $150M expansions of student housing, science/technology building, etc.
2. Olmsted $1.2M Scajaquada Trail rehabilitation
3. Richardson Towers stabilization/development ~ $85M
4. Ed Hogle's Rock Harbor Student Housing Project on Tonawanda/West Avenue ~ $1.5M
5. DOT/City of Buffalo Downgrading of Rt. 198 from highway to parkway ~ $15M in 2011/2012
6. Possible skate park development on Niagara Street adjacent to bike path
What is clear about the pollution, maintenance, security and development of Scajaquada Creek, Scajaquada Trail and the Hoyt Lake recreation and waterways is that there is no single entity that is charged with and responsible for the Lake, the Creek, Route 198 and the Black Rock Channel. NY State Department of Transportation and Thruway Authority, Buffalo City Public Works, Olmsted Conservancy, Buffalo State College, Black Rock Riverside GNPA, Erie County Parks, Erie County Historical Society, and even Forest Lawn Cemetery, the Towns of Cheektowaga and Lancaster, the Buffalo Sewer Authority and the Walden Galleria, all have some degree of responsibility and vested interest in our poor Creek.
What remains to be seen is who will create a vision that the public will believe in and get behind. Then the entities responsible can work on implementing that vision. Until then we'll probably have problems like the plugged up Scajaquada Creek overflowing untreated sewage into Delaware Park.
View image
The water quality of Hoyt Lake and Scajaquada Creek has been on the minds, and in the noses, of the hundreds of volunteers who cleaned Scajaquada Creek on April 18th.
There is a nasty fecal smell around Scajaquada Creek's emergence along the North Bay S-dam and by the Elmwood Avenue bridge. It seems obvious that there are water quality issues that need to be looked at in relation to Scajaquada Creek overflowing into Hoyt Lake, due to its discharge being plugged by a "sludge island" at the west end of the Scajaquada underground diversion. The sludge is so thick that a person's weight can be supported across its width, as one of the volunteers at the clean-up walked from the south Creek slope, across the sludge, to the S-dam.
This brings up several immediate questions: Who is responsible for assessing the water quality, and maintaining the Creek flow? Who is responsible for sludge removal/dredging the Creek? How soon can it get done, so that the Creek doesn't plug up into the underground section causing overflows into Hoyt Lake? This would seem to need to be immediately addressed, this summer.
Going forward, perhaps there should be a Summit of the Scajaquada, including the Hoyt Lake issues, that can begin to finally sort out the mess of Scajaquada. This could help to answer questions like: What are the upstream hydrological inputs to the Scajaquada Creek that make it so nasty anyways? Can combined sewer overflows and special discharge permits inputs into the Creek upstream, be treated at the point source by other means, like constructed wetlands, in vacant property on the East side of Buffalo and in Cheektowaga/Lancaster? Can highway discharges be filtered so that road salt and car fluids are not getting into the Creek and Lake? How will the Rt. 198 downgrading into a Parkway best contribute to water quality and recreation along the Park and Trail System? Do we need the finger dam at Peter Street? How can the vast buried cultural and historical uniqueness of the Park, Trail and Creek be best unearthed, illustrated, interpreted and celebrated? These and a myriad of other issues need be addressed proactively considering the abundance of projects proposed and underway from Main Street to the Black Rock Channel along the route of the Scajaquada:
1. Buffalo State expansion-desire to use (contaminated) City Auto impound for stadium/Scajaquada waterfront, and other $150M expansions of student housing, science/technology building, etc.
2. Olmsted $1.2M Scajaquada Trail rehabilitation
3. Richardson Towers stabilization/development ~ $85M
4. Ed Hogle's Rock Harbor Student Housing Project on Tonawanda/West Avenue ~ $1.5M
5. DOT/City of Buffalo Downgrading of Rt. 198 from highway to parkway ~ $15M in 2011/2012
6. Possible skate park development on Niagara Street adjacent to bike path
What is clear about the pollution, maintenance, security and development of Scajaquada Creek, Scajaquada Trail and the Hoyt Lake recreation and waterways is that there is no single entity that is charged with and responsible for the Lake, the Creek, Route 198 and the Black Rock Channel. NY State Department of Transportation and Thruway Authority, Buffalo City Public Works, Olmsted Conservancy, Buffalo State College, Black Rock Riverside GNPA, Erie County Parks, Erie County Historical Society, and even Forest Lawn Cemetery, the Towns of Cheektowaga and Lancaster, the Buffalo Sewer Authority and the Walden Galleria, all have some degree of responsibility and vested interest in our poor Creek.
What remains to be seen is who will create a vision that the public will believe in and get behind. Then the entities responsible can work on implementing that vision. Until then we'll probably have problems like the plugged up Scajaquada Creek overflowing untreated sewage into Delaware Park.
very good article. I have been watching that island build up over the past couple yeas. I have also watched the damn between the creek and the lake sink during my lifetime. I remember as a child being able to run up and down the sides of the barrier... Now it is basically at water level.
What happens in another couple years when it is below water level and the creek flows back into the lake without anywhere for the water to go since it is dammed here in front of the Hist Society.
This is a huge problem and really negatively effects the quality of life for all communities along its banks. Starting from Lancaster and working to Black Rock all parties need to be brought to the table to help fix a decades old problem.