The Buffalo River Area of Concern

The Buffalo River “Area of Concern” extends from the mouth of the Buffalo River to the farthest point upstream at which the backwater condition exists during Lake Erie’s highest monthly average lake level. This area is 6.2 miles long but also includes the City Ship Canal. The land adjacent to the AOC is primarily industrial and residential and has historically been characterized by heavy industrial activity. The City Ship Canal is 1.4 miles long and a portion is considered a federal navigation channel. It has been suggested that the Canal is home to some of the worst contaminated sediments within the AOC.

In 1987, the International Joint Commission designated the Buffalo River as an “Area of Concern” or one of the 43 most toxic hotspots in the Great Lakes. As required under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, all “Areas of Concern,” or AOC’s, were required to complete a Remedial Action Plan, or RAP. The Buffalo River RAP was completed in 1989 by NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) in partnership with a local citizen’s advisory committee. The combined Stage 1 and Stage 2 RAP included a remediation strategy of stream water quality monitoring, contaminated bottom sediment assessment and action determination, inactive hazardous waste site remediation, point and nonpoint source discharge evaluation, combined sewer overflow assessment, remedial measure implementation monitoring, fish and wildlife beneficial use restoration, and habitat protection.

Between 1989 and 2003, NYSDEC coordinated the Buffalo River Remedial Action Plan process. In October 2003, the USEPA Great Lakes National Program Office (GLNPO) selected Friends of the Buffalo Niagara Rivers (FBNR) to take over coordination of the RAP. (FBNR changed its name in July 2005 and is now known as Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper). With the assistance of the Remedial Advisory Committee (RAC), NYSDEC, and over 30 other governmental and non-governmental agencies and organizations, Riverkeeper is working towards the goal of delisting the Buffalo River as an Area of Concern.

The Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA) lists “Beneficial Use Impairments” as “changes in the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the Great Lakes System that create barriers to the use of the water resource.” These use impairments have become the template for determining the extent to which the river is degraded and for measuring progress toward its clean up. Once a beneficial use has been restored, it can be “delisted” using the IJC’s criteria.

In December 2001, the US Policy Committee published “Restoring Great Lakes Areas of Concern – Delisting Principles and Guidelines.” These guidelines allow for the delisting of individual use impairments in the entire AOC under the following circumstances:

When locally derived delisting criteria have been met;
When the use impairment is due to natural rather than man-made causes;
When the use impairment is not limited geographically to the AOC, but rather is typical of regional conditions;
When the source of the use impairment is outside the boundaries of the AOC; or
When the beneficial use can not be fully restored, even when all practical remedial actions have been implemented.

The following tables summarize the Beneficial Use Impairments of the Buffalo River AOC, as well as identifies the known (or suspected) causes of the impairment, and the criteria that need to be meet to delist.