Scajaquada Creek Watershed

Buffalo was designed with a combined sewer system. These collect stormwater runoff and sewage in the same pipe to bring to the wastewater treatment facility. To prevent back ups, the systems were also designed with outfalls to allow excess water out of the system. Due to increasing impervious surface (such as parking lots and roadways) and demand on our pipes, heavy rainstorms lead to overflows which discharge the combination of sewage and stormwater directly into waterbodies, like  Scajaquada Creek.

Impacted areas: Lower Scajaquada, Scajaquada Drain

Other sewer systems, like in CheektowagaAC and Lancaster, were designed to carry stormwater runoff and sewage through separate pipes. These separated sanitary sewers can still overflow directly into waterbodies due to excess water from sump pumps and connected downspouts. This can also be caused by aging pipes that have cracks in them and take on groundwater. These types of connections to the system are not allowed, but are still in practice in homes that have not been inspected recently.

Impacted areas: Town of Cheektowaga, Lancaster Headwaters

Over the years, the Scajaquada Creek has been altered to make way for urban development. Due to sanitation and flooding concerns, in the 1920s over three miles of the creek were buried underground in the east side of Buffalo. Wetlands have been drained along the creek. The creek has also been channelized, or straightened, and its path reinforced with concrete. These changes affect the ability of natural processes to maintain good water quality and provide habitat for fish and other species.

Impacted areas: All sections

The Scajaquada Expressway, Route 198 follows the creek bed from around Delaware Park through to its mouth. Pillars holding up the elevated portions and ramp connecting to I-190 are built directly into the creek bed. This poses barriers to public access as well as threatens water quality from direct runoff, salt, silt and other debris that collects on the raised highway.

Impacted areas: Lower Scajaquada

The name Scajaquada comes from the Native American name Conjockety, or Kenjockety, who was known as the “last survivor” of the Neutral Nation that  lived at Black Rock.

The mouth of Scajaquada at Black Rock was the site of America’s first Naval Shipyard, used in the War of 1812 to fight off the British invading from Canada.

Fredrick Law Olmsted designed Delaware Park, and “Gala Water,” known later as Delaware Park Lake and Hoyt Lake, by damming Scajaquada Creek.

The 1901 Pan-American Exposition was held on the shores of Scajaquada Creek and Delaware Park Lake.

As a reaction to extreme pollution that saw Scajaquada Creek being labeled a “public nuisance” , nearly four miles of Scajaquada Creek was buried at an average depth of 8 feet, to remove the problem from sight.

A national trend saw cities everywhere constructing limited access highways through neighborhoods in order to shuttle commuters from suburban locations to jobs in the City. In the 1960’s the NYS RT 198 was constructed through neighborhoods, Buffalo’s crown jewel Delaware Park, and directly on top of Scajaquada Creek.

Massive flooding driven by hydrologic modification of the creek and changing land use occurred in Scajaquada Creek in 1937, 1942, 1945, 1963, and 1967, spurring the USACOE to construct a large flood control basin in Cheektowaga.

Development in the headwaters of Scajaquada Creek increased rapidly after the construction of the flood control project, and the Galleria Mall, which straddles the creek in Cheektowaga, and further drained and diverted the remaining wetlands.