Press release
Construction of a controversial industrial wastewater pipeline slated to service the WNY STAMP mega industrial site has been suspended based on reports of sinkholes and drilling fluid spills, according to a United State Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) notification sent to the Tonawanda Seneca Nation.
According to Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge Manager (INWR) Tom Roster, construction was halted after a September 7 report of multiple “sinkholes” and “fluids associated with subsurface drilling appear[ing] on the refuge surface.”
Such fluids typically contain a mixture of chemicals that may cause harm to aquatic and terrestrial organisms. The New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has provided secondary confirmation of this report, and on Wednesday, September 20 notified the Nation of a prior “minor frac-out” – or spillage of drilling fluids – that occurred in the INWR on August 15, 2023 during horizontal directional drilling (HDD) for the pipeline.
According to the DEC, construction activities were allowed to resume after the August spill was “contained to a roadside ditch and removed by a vacuum truck.”
Nation citizens on public rights of way first observed lack of proper erosion and sediment controls associated with pipeline construction on July 30 and notified DEC and NYSDOT in August and September.
Under the terms of the permit, responsibility for monitoring compliance with permit conditions rests with CPL, an engineering firm paid by pipeline project developer GCEDC. DEC’s inspection report from August 17 – two days after CPL initially reported a spill – notes multiple violations, including lack of properly installed erosion and sediment control measures and discharge from the site on the day of the inspection. However, the overall inspection rating is marked ‘Satisfactory’ and DEC officials reported to the Nation in an August email that “no issues were observed.”
“The Nation has had concerns that drilling for the construction of the pipeline would be an environmental hazard to the biodiversity and wildlife in the Refuge, which lies within our ancestral territory” said Nation spokesperson Grandell Logan.
“Not only during construction, but also in the long term, as the pipeline is planned to carry massive
amounts of sewage and industrial wastewater from the STAMP site to Oak Orchard Creek. Today some of our fears were realized, and we again call on U.S. Fish and Wildlife to suspend this potentially disastrous permit.”
The announcement of spills follows months of efforts by the Nation to try to ensure a thorough environmental review was undertaken prior to any construction. Thus far, USFWS has not allowed Nation monitors onsite to observe the work, a request by the Nation submitted to USFWS over a month ago. Permits for the project require USFWS monitoring but delegate NYSDOT’s oversight to the developer’s engineering consultants.
The pipeline, which would send 6 million gallons of industrial wastewater and treated sewage from the STAMP site in Genesee County through the Refuge and into Oak Orchard Creek, has been challenged in court by Orleans County.
On Monday, State Supreme Court Justice Sanford Church ordered construction of the pipeline in Orleans
County halted pending an October 23 hearing.
My first concern was for the welfare of the “swamp’ and all the beautiful birds. Never, ever should anyone be allowed to pump all this wastewater into the Oak Orchard River. I think the Stamp project should have to have it’s own sewage and disposal plant built right there at the Stamp location. In Florida you will often see mobile home parks with their own such facility. Why can’t that be done here?
This is the first time I’ve have heard about this project
I hunt the swamp for deer
Does not seem like a good plan to me