Together with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC), Erie County, Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper and the Buffalo River Remedial Advisory Committee (BRRAC), the U.S. EPA announces the pending removal of the Fish Tumors and Other Deformities Beneficial Use Impairment (BUI) at the Buffalo River Area of Concern (AOC). BUIs are designations listed in the 1987 amendment to the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement that represent different types of significant environmental degradation. The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative provided significant funding for the remediation work required to remove this BUI.
A draft report, which details the completed actions and assessments supporting the BUI removal, is available for public review below. Public comments on the draft report and proposed BUI removal were taken through Aug. 19, and that time frame is now closed.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper held a hybrid in-person/virtual outreach meeting on Tuesday, July 30 from 5:30 to 6:55 p.m. to update the public about ongoing efforts to restore natural resources in the Buffalo River Area of Concern (AOC) and the proposed removal of the ‘BUI 4: Fish Tumors and Other Deformities.’
A recording of the video can be viewed below.
The Buffalo River AOC is located in the City of Buffalo, Erie County, New York and includes the historically industrialized portion of the river beginning at its mouth (where it outlets to Lake Erie), and continuing upstream approximately six miles to the Bailey Avenue bridge.
The Buffalo River AOC has been significantly altered from its natural state by industrial activity and suffered a number of ecological impairments as a result. From the late 1800s through 1980s, contaminants leaching and being discharged into the river from industrial facilities led to high sediment toxicity within the AOC, and navigational dredging altered the structure of the Buffalo River from a shallow river to a deeper, lake-like habitat. The Fish Tumors and Other Deformities BUI was initially designated as impaired in 1989 presumably due primarily to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in Buffalo River sediments. Studies conducted in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s revealed a high incidence of fish tumors and showed that extracts of river sediments caused skin and liver tumors in brown bullhead. Scientists have linked the development of fish tumors to PAHs from the discovery of greater amounts of carcinogenic metabolites of these compounds.
The Buffalo River Restoration Partnership Coordination Team was formed in 2007 by US EPA, NYSDEC, Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper, US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), the City of Buffalo, and Honeywell, Inc.
This team developed and implemented the remedial actions required to address the impaired sediments in the Buffalo River AOC. To resolve issues with sediment toxicity, practices were first implemented to control sources of contamination at active industrial sites to prevent further contamination in the AOC. Additionally, more than a million cubic yards of contaminated sediments were dredged and removed from the river and a clean ‘cap’ was strategically placed on top of several dredged areas to prevent the potential residual contaminants from becoming re-suspended in the water.
Fish tumor assessment in AOCs has traditionally relied on survey data comparing exposed (impacted) and reference (unimpacted) sites for two tumor types (neoplasms and preneoplasms) in the livers of two inshore fish species: brown bullhead and white suckers. These two species are preferred indicators due to their life history traits, including their dietary habits (omnivores preying upon invertebrates buried in sediments), limited migration patterns, preferred habitats in muddy lake bottoms, as well as their resilience in low dissolved oxygen conditions.
A key study, led by DEC and U.S EPA Great Lakes National Program Office (GLNPO), was conducted in 2008 to document the extent of chemical contamination and assess baseline ecological conditions for the Buffalo River AOC before sediment remedial actions were implemented.
As part of this, brown bullheads were collected from the Buffalo River AOC in the fall of 2008 to evaluate the status of the Fish Tumors and Other Deformities BUI at that time. Fish were collected from three pre-determined zones within the AOC boundary, and tumors were found in three of the 37 brown bullhead livers, in one fish from each of the three reaches of the river. This baseline data was compared to historic samples collected in the 1980s and 1990s, and tumor prevalence was determined to be substantially reduced from tumors reported in the two earlier surveys.
As part of post-remedial monitoring in 2021, 50 brown bullheads were collected from the Buffalo River via DC boat electrofishing. Three fish had tumors, one was located in a liver and two were found in the biliary ducts. The three fish were aged to be nine years old. The Buffalo River data was compared to a control site: Long Point Inner Bay (LPIB) to evaluate this BUI.
Based on analysis demonstrating tumor prevalence in brown bullhead is not statistically higher than those found in the LPIB control site, and the additional weight of evidence of age and environmental factors as outlined in the report, the removal criteria for the Fish Tumors and Other Deformities BUI has been met. Accordingly, DEC and the RAC fully support the redesignation of its status from “impaired” to “not impaired.”
The Fish Tumors and Other Deformities BUI would be the sixth to be removed in the Buffalo River AOC, after which only three BUIs remain.
