Like most large cities around the Great Lakes, the waste water and the storm water drainage systems of Buffalo are combined into a single system. Under normal conditions, this poses no problems because the treatment plant is capable of handling the volume of water entering the system. During intense storms, however, the treatment plants are incapable of handling all the water, and overflows of untreated water enter the Buffalo River. The GLC was commissioned by the Buffalo Sewer Authority to monitor the overflows as they entered the river and then flowed out into the lake and down the Niagara River. We used CTD dataloggers deployed from both the R/V Pisces and the R/V Aquarius during the project to develop 3-dimensional models of the plumes. We were most interested in determining the effect of the plumes on the temperature, turbidity, and dissolved oxygen of the receiving waters.
The Buffalo River is a receiving water for contaminants from a variety of chemical, metallurgical, and petroleum industries that line its shores. Contaminant loadings may also come from its upper watershed and from the 39 combined sewer overflows to the Buffalo River, especially during storm events. The goal of our research was to determine the impact of storms on the water quality of the Buffalo River, Niagara River and Black Rock Canal. We used Seabird CTD oceanographic profilers and EVS-Pro three-dimensional visualization software to collect data and create visual models of parameter responses to storm events and baseflow conditions.
We found that storm events over the Buffalo River watershed produce runoff from the watershed and from CSOs that degrade the water quality in the Buffalo River and the Black Rock Canal. The effects in the Niagara River, however, are minimal. EVS models suggest that suspended sediment settles out quickly and other contaminants are greatly diluted by ambient waters in the Outer Harbor or the Niagara River. Storm events had a more noticeable impact on the Canal than the Buffalo River.
