The History of Buffalo Sewer
1830’s
| Beginning in the 1830s, the only sewer systems being built in Buffalo were primarily private citizens who wanted to drain properties within the historical wetland areas in and around downtown Buffalo. |  |
1840’s
| By 1848, the city government began to lay official public sewer mains to drain sewage and stormwater throughout the city core with all pipes discharging to the nearest waterways such as the Buffalo River, Scajaquada Creek, and Black Rock Canal. The population of the City of Buffalo grew quickly, and waterborne illnesses were rampant from the polluted waters. |  |
1870’s-1900’s
| After the Civil War, a plan for a comprehensive sewage collection system throughout the city was developed to eliminate these waterborne illnesses. Throughout 1870-1900, this plan was constructed. The system was comprised of many smaller pipes flowing into one large trunk sewer system. Sort of like the branches on a tree combining down into the trunk. This system no longer flowed into nearby waterways, but instead these pipes flowed into one location: The Niagara River. At the time, the City of Buffalo was the sixth largest city in the United States. No longer polluting nearby waterways, but instead flowing untreated sewage into the Niagara River causing the same illnesses and foul conditions downstream. |  |
1935-1940
| This issue was well documented by the governments of the United States, New York State, and the province of Ontario and Canada (which was still a dominion of the British Empire). Yet, Buffalo didn’t have the incentive or financial capability to address it as a city government. As a result, on April 8, 1935, the Buffalo Sewer Authority was created by the New York State Legislature with approval of Governor Herbert H. Lehman, with the purpose of providing “an effectual means for relieving the Niagara River, Buffalo River and Lake Erie from pollution by sewage and waste” and “inadequate sanitary and storm water drainage”. |  |
|
From 1935 to 1940, thanks to significant federal funding, the Buffalo Sewer Authority constructed a physical treatment facility and a series of sewers ranging in size from 18 inches all the way up to 11 feet; intercepting the existing combined sewage system and rerouting flows to the treatment facility. On September 12, 1939, the Bird Island Treatment Facility had officially all but eliminated typhoid fever in Western New York after decades if the highest rates recorded in North America at the time. |
 |
1950’s-1960’s
| Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the Buffalo Sewer Authority didn’t slow down their goals. Continuously improving the city’s sewer system to reduce flooding and the treatment facility was expanded for better solids handling purposes. By late 1960s, scientists, everyday citizens, and politicians agreed that the need for cleaner waterways throughout the United States was a priority. An expansion of the treatment facility to incorporate biological treatment began to be planned. |  |
1979
|
On July 7, 1979, the Secondary Treatment Expansion was built at the Bird Island Treatment Facility to ensure that wastewater treatment met modern standards. One year later, the Kelly Island Sanitary Sewer system began operating, eliminating industrial discharges to the Buffalo River and laid the groundwork for recreational usage of today’s Canalside and Outer Harbor.
|
 |
1980’s-Today
|
From the 1980s all the way to now, the Buffalo Sewer Authority continued to expand and modify the collection system within our city to reduce combined sewer overflows and ensure cleaner waters for our city’s people and downstream communities. During this time, the grit handling building was added to the treatment process. Over the past 10 years, there has been 10 new Smart Sewer facilities created to ensure hundreds of millions of gallons of wastewater pass through the treatment facility each year instead of going into our waterways. |
 |
Queen City Clean Waters
|
On October 19, 2022, the Buffalo Sewer Authority officially broke ground on the first of three phases of the ambitious $1 billion Queen City Clean Waters initiative. A fifteen year renovation to fully restore the Bird Island treatment facility to its 1979 capacity and then expand that capacity further to 560 MGD during wet weather (That’s approx. 25 Olympic sized swimming pools of additional space during major rainstorms!), with $250 million budget. The entirety of the remaining $750 million is being invested in our collection system to limit combined sewer overflows to a maximum of 9 events per year. This is to ensure that these aging systems continue to serve the people of Buffalo, Western New York, and the Niagara Peninsula for decades if not centuries to come. |
 |
| The history of the Buffalo Sewer Authority has been a long and complex one, but from our beginnings in 1935, we have been dedicated to ensuring the protection of public health and the environment throughout the City of Buffalo, Western New York, and for our Canadian neighbors of the Niagara Peninsula. As we celebrate our 90 year anniversary, we look back with pride upon the work we have already accomplished and with anticipation of the improvements to come! |  |
1909 a treaty was entered into by the United States and Canada specifically providing that the waters herein defined as boundary waters flowing across the boundary shall not be polluted
