Sewer overflows now public

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The stinky truth is finally public.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation has begun publishing sewer overflow reports from across New York.

The reports, which are in Excel format, are posted here.

Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the “Sewage Pollution Right to Know Law” in August. The law requires public sewage treatment plants and sewer systems to notify the DEC whenever there is a sewer overflow of untreated or partially treated sewage and stormwater into waterways.

Combined sewer systems, like the one in Buffalo, take both untreated sewage and stormwater into one pipe before making its way to a treatment plant. But when it rains the system can get overloaded and the effluent gushes into local waterways. Buffalo has more than 50 discharge pipes at various locations, including the Buffalo and Niagara rivers.

This type of system exists in more than 700 other cities.

Most suburbs, such as the city of Tonawanda, have separated sanitary sewer systems that also get overwhelmed during storm events. The DEC has most of these localities under a consent order to develop a plan to stop the overflows.

The data so far for this month shows only one discharge in this region: The Niagara Falls Wastewater Treatment Plant reported that on May 13 at 11:55 a.m. almost 800 gallons of untreated effluent discharged into the Niagara River.