Did Cheektowaga Just Dump Millions Of Gallons Of Sewage In Scajaquada Creek

Just in case you thought the end of winter in Western New York would also be the end of the wild weather we typically get, you were wrong. The last few days have been a wild ride for people in the Buffalo area on the weather front, with strong winds, dangerous thunderstorms, golf-ball-sized hail, tornadoes, and flooding all over the region.

That wild weather leaves its impact in many ways that you can see and some ways that you don't normally see. One of those ways has been the amount of raw and untreated wastewater that has been dumped into the region's waterways. It's not uncommon for our wastewater treatment plants to be overwhelmed when several inches of heavy rain hit the region, often causing water to back up into our basements as sewer pipes in the neighborhoods get overloaded.

KEEP READING: Rainstorms Cause Flooding and Sewer Backups All Over Western New York

However, a wastewater sewage overflow report that was issued by the Town of Cheektowaga on Tuesday, March 31, 2026, in accordance with New York State's Sewage Pollution Right to Know rules, has raised eyebrows all over New York State with the staggering amount of raw, untreated wastewater and sewage that was dumped into the Scajaquada Creek over the last few days.

Using data released by the Town of Cheektowaga, an unprecedented volume of untreated sewage and wastewater has been discharged into local waterways. Specifically, according to the notice, 1 Decillion Gallons have been released. That's 1 with 33 zeros at the end, or 1 Trillion Trillion Billion Gallons.

1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

Now, in reality, that is likely a typo that was entered into the state's reporting system. However, what makes this especially concerning is whether officials in Cheektowaga actually know how badly they're damaging our waterways.

Especially for those of us who reside in Buffalo and have to live with their waste.