SALAMANCA — The city of Salamanca is putting its support behind the Seneca Nation concerning safe and clean water within the Allegheny River following recent sewage discharge upriver.
“Over the years, there have been several times that sewage has been spilled into the Alleghany River — the Ohi:yo’, which means good or beautiful river — and (the Nation) have asked the municipalities to correct the situation,” Mayor Sandra Magiera said Wednesday. “However, it is still happening.”
In early April, the city of Olean’s South Fourth Street lift station discharged Olean’s South Fourth Street lift station discharged nearly 200,000 gallons of untreated water in one day during two separate instances, one regarding a clogged pump and another from the system being overwhelmed.
The SNI’s Emergency Management department issued an advisory the following day discouraging recreational activities in or along the river “for the next several days.”
“It is unfortunate and unconscionable that this ongoing threat to the health and safety of Ohi:yo’ and the people who live along the river is allowed to continue,” said Seneca Nation President Rickey Armstrong Sr. in a statement at the time. “Dangerous overflows and illegal discharges into the river from the Olean plant have been a persistent problem for years, yet the City fails to address the problem. The Seneca people and our neighbors along Ohi:yo’ should not be forced to live with these unhealthy conditions and attacks on our valued ecosystem.”
SNI officials also claimed to have offered to help the city seek grants and other funds for the work and claimed the city had declined the assistance.
“Ongoing warnings and citations without an effective remedy only increase the likelihood of additional discharges and further threaten public health and safety,” Armstrong said. “Our people and our many neighbors along Ohi:yo’ deserve more than fruitless conversations and toothless citations. Don’t push this situation down the road for another two decades. Fix it now.”
Olean Mayor Bill Aiello declined to comment directly on Armstrong’s message but denied that the city had declined assistance in seeking grants.
Roughly one discharge has been reported by the city every year since 2018, most of which occurred at the South Fourth Street site. The largest in recent years was a 330,000-gallon discharge over 21 hours in August 2019 triggered by a power failure, which led to closures of boat launches downstream and a threat of a lawsuit in 2022 from the Seneca Nation.
In a resolution unanimously approved by the Common Council, Magiera said the city understands the importance of clean and safe water from the Allegheny River to the Seneca people.
Much of the city of Salamanca lies on the Nation’s Allegany Territory, which extends about one mile on either shore of the river between the town of Allegany and the town of South Valley’s border with Pennsylvania.
“We the city of Salamanca stand with the Seneca Nation and their people and request that these municipalities correct the situation sooner than 2042, the time they were given,” Magiera said. “This is too far away. We would like to see it done in half the time allowed, within 10 years from now.
