Franklinville, N.Y. (WBEN) - Residents in Cattaraugus County are demanding answers after tens of thousands of fish turned up dead in Ischua Creek in the Town of Franklinville back on Aug. 26.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) responded a week-and-a-half ago to reports of a large fish kill in Ischua Creek, where field staff observed multiple types of dead aquatic species in the area.
Upon its investigation, the DEC found the Great Lakes Cheese facility in Franklinville had been discharging organic visible effluent waste and odors from the facility’s outfall into Ischua Creek. The plant's wastewater treatment operations handles milk and other dairy processing materials that contribute to low dissolved oxygen and elevated nutrients, temperature, and dissolved constituents such as total dissolved solids.
The DEC says these factors can affect fish and wildlife survival, particularly during the warm and low stream conditions that existed at the time of the incident.
As a result, the DEC directed Great Lakes Cheese to take immediate actions to address the ongoing impacts, and the facility voluntarily paused wastewater discharge operations into Ischua Creek on Aug. 29. The factory continues to pause the discharge of outfall into Ischua Creek until further notice.
In the days following the incident, DEC officials say no wastewater is being discharged to the waterbody, though the agency is closely overseeing all modifications being proposed to prevent any future discharges that could damage natural resources.
Despite the findings from the DEC, residents still feel there are too many unanswered questions that need to be clarified, or else there could be even more environmental concerns.
"There's rumors flying, and I want to find out what's true and what isn't," said Karen Nowak from Allegany, protesting outside Great Lakes Cheese factory on Friday. "My son is an avid fisherman and fishes in this area. He and his friends have witnessed the dead fish all over, the alewife is a little tiny fish that support the bigger fish and the Great Blue Herons. What are they going to eat? And if they eat that, are they going to get sick, and are they going to die off? Are they going to have anything to eat? There has started to be a nice healthy population of the Bald Eagle. When I was growing up, they were almost extinct. They're around here. I kayak down Olean Creek and see them and wonder if they eat a contaminated fish, is it going to bother them, or are they going to even have fish to eat and then go away?"
Anie Watkins from Ischua is not OK with what's been happening to Ischua Creek, especially with Great Lakes Cheese having not even been in operation for a full year yet.
"We've had a huge kill with all of our aquatic life of the creek, and now it's turning into mammals. There's mammals that are down there eating it, because nothing's been done except monitoring, and they haven't really cleaned things up. So there's loads of carcasses everywhere that now the mammals are eating and getting sick and dying from," Watkins said with WBEN. "I'm here because we need to unify, and have our voice heard."
What may frustrate Franklinville resident Christine Gonzalez the most is the lack of communication the community has received from either Great Lakes Cheese or the DEC.
"They have yet to talk to their people. They have not had a meeting with their people, saying what's going on. Taking accountability, even to their employees. How does a large billion-dollar company not say anything to the employees about what's going on? How does that make any sense?" Gonzalez questioned with WBEN.
"We're not getting any answers. What are you doing with the dead critters over there? There's lots of them, there's turtles, there's everything," added Franklinville resident Laura. "The birds are now coming and eating them, so does that mean the birds are going to be dying too, because they're eating the dead animals that are contaminated? That's an ecosystem."
With the contamination at the hands of Great Lakes Cheese, residents feel a sense of betrayal and disappointment, especially with the push that was brought to bring the factory to Franklinville.
"Absolutely. It's like, 'Yeah, great, you brought us 500 jobs,' but what else did you bring us? You just totally tainted our pristine creek that people utilize for fishing, food and recreation, and now we can't even go near it," Watkins said. "Not to mention, DEC put one measly sign up to let people [know] not to go to it. We have a lot of people here that don't even have electricity, like our Amish community. How are they supposed to know to stay away from that water?"
Nowak is hoping for more lawmakers at the county and state level to raise their concerns, and also demand answers for what transpired.
"Are they testing the creek? I want to know what actually was in there, because nobody knows," Nowak said with WBEN. "My son said there's dead snapping turtles. Snapping turtles are extremely rugged and tough and strong. If they said it was because of the oxygen levels, well, they come up and breathe air. So what killed those turtles? It had to be something really nasty, to me, if it's not just some rotten cheese or some bacteria or anything. It's got to be something really, really nasty."
At this point, residents are hoping Great Lakes Cheese will take any sense of accountability and admit their wrongdoings to the community.
"Saying you're going to do something and doing it is two different things. I just really hope that they actually do clean it up, and prevent it from happening again," Gonzalez said.
Since voluntarily pausing any discharge of wastewater, Great Lakes Cheese factory has returned its workforce to the facility to complete different business critical tasks, which include warehousing and order fulfillment. The factory says none of the tasks will impact any efforts to optimize the wastewater treatment facility.
Officials from Great Lakes Cheese released the following statement on Thursday:
"Identifying the root cause of last week's incident and environmental impacts on Ischua Creek as quickly as possible remains our immediate priority.
"Great Lakes Cheese continues to work in close collaboration with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and other state agencies in looking at the discharge of organic waste from our wastewater treatment operations and other factors, such as low dissolved oxygen, combined with warm and low stream levels.
"This process takes time, and we are committed to following that process through, in close, daily collaboration with the DEC, to its safe, necessary conclusion."