The Eighteenmile Creek Area of Concern may soon lose an impairment designation, a sign of progress — albeit slow progress — in the decades-long effort to clean up a toxic hot spot in the Great Lakes Basin.
Through Sept. 6, the Niagara County Soil & Water Conservation District is accepting public comments on the state’s proposal to drop the “Degradation of Fish and Wildlife Populations Beneficial Use Impairment” attached to the Eighteenmile Creek Area of Concern, which covers 11 miles of the creek from lowertown Lockport north to Olcott where it spills into Lake Ontario.
In Great Lakes areas of concern, Beneficial Use Impairments (BUIs) signify chemical, physical or biological problems caused by pollution. The culprits in the Eighteenmile Creek Area of Concern are legacy PCBs and heavy metals, and they’ve been the source of five BUIs in recent years. One, which restricted dredging in the creek, was lifted in 2020. Supposing the degradation of fish and wildlife BUI is lifted — because comparative studies suggest PCB levels in the creek are no longer high enough to kill fish and wildlife — three impairments will remain: bird or animal deformities or reproductive problems, degradation of benthos (the flora and fauna populating the creek bottom), and restrictions on consumption of fish and wildlife. The latter impairment is significant considering the creek is a sportfishing hot spot, hence it’s a driver of local tourism and economic development. The other impairments aren’t insignificant, though. Now more than ever, we’re all at least generally aware of the role that the physical environment plays in human health and wellbeing. Bottom line, a sick environment — a damaged ecosystem in which native birds, fish, wildlife and/or plants can’t survive or thrive — eventually brings harm to people, physically or economically.
Eighteenmile Creek was listed as a Great Lakes Area of Concern in 1987, almost 40 years ago. Getting it delisted has always meant getting it clean enough that it can lose all BUIs. That’s a complex and costly proposition. In 2011, the cleanup tab was ballparked at $25 million, closer to $50 million if the old Flintkote industrial property in lowertown — which was known to be a main source of PCBs downstream — was included.
A decade later, although they’re technically separate, the boundaries of the Eighteenmile Creek Area of Concern and the Eighteenmile Creek Corridor U.S. Superfund site are roughly the same, and the cleanup tab hovers around $230 million, so far. Thankfully, there’s no required local “match” on that, it’s all on Uncle Sam.
It’s a strange thing to appreciate, perhaps, but incorporation of the Eighteenmile Creek Area of Concern into the more ominous-sounding Superfund site in 2012 essentially guaranteed its eventual rehabilitation. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency previously projected a Superfund site remediation finish date of 2030. That may be overly optimistic, considering the plan of attack has been tweaked as more data is collected, the price only goes up over time and the funding depends on Congress, but surely another 40 years won’t go by with the restoration of Great Lake Ontario still To Be Determined. Back to those BUIs, two down since 2020 leaves three to go, suggesting the healing of Eighteenmile Creek is almost half complete already.