waterway · Erie County
Cayuga Creek — Erie County
Lancaster / Depew / Cheektowaga
Erie County tributary of the Buffalo River whose Depew–Cheektowaga corridor intersects former municipal landfills, foundry-waste disposal areas, floodplain fill, and later creek restoration. This watershed hub keeps those source sites distinct while tracing their shared downstream setting.
The documented story
What happened here?
This is the Cayuga Creek that rises in eastern Erie County, passes through Lancaster, Depew, and Cheektowaga, and joins Buffalo Creek before the Buffalo River reaches Lake Erie. It is distinct from the Niagara County Cayuga Creek that flows toward the Niagara River.
The 1989 Buffalo River Remedial Action Plan identified a chain of waste sites in this watershed, including the Town of Marilla and Lancaster landfills, Stocks Pond, Dresser Industries, Depew Village Landfill, Land Reclamation, Old Land Reclamation, and Union Road. That list is a historical screening framework, not proof that every site contributed the same contaminants or remains in the same condition today.
The strongest documented creek connection is at Depew Village Landfill, where lead-bearing ash and fill eroded into sediment. Land Reclamation and Old Land Reclamation occupy the floodplain farther downstream. Separate site records are necessary because ownership, waste streams, remedy boundaries, and present controls differ.
Chronology in context
Turning points in the public record
Industrial and disposal era
Municipal refuse, incinerator ash, foundry residuals, and other industrial wastes were placed at separate facilities along the watershed.
1989
The Buffalo River Remedial Action Plan organized eight Cayuga Creek watershed sites as potential contaminant-source concerns requiring site-specific investigation.
2001
A streambank project at Depew Village Landfill encountered exceptionally lead-rich fill and stopped, prompting expanded state investigation.
2008–2009
New York selected separate remedies for the Depew landfill source area and affected creek bank, floodplain, and sediment.
Present
Cleanup stewardship, water-quality work, floodplain restoration, and habitat projects continue under different programs and boundaries.
Environmental record
Documented impacts
- At Depew Village Landfill, DEC documented lead-bearing soil and ash, bank erosion, and contaminated Cayuga Creek sediment over a defined study reach.
- At Land Reclamation, records document municipal and industrial waste disposal in the floodplain and groundwater movement toward the creek.
- The watershed-wide list identifies sites for investigation; it does not establish one continuous contaminated corridor or assign all downstream conditions to a single source.
Response
Cleanup and controls
- The Depew remedy included excavation, creek-bank stabilization, a landfill cover, gas controls, monitoring, and institutional controls.
- Land Reclamation was closed with a cap and drainage, leachate, gas, monitoring, and access controls under its own decision record.
- Other watershed sites must be evaluated from their current individual records before their historic RAP status is presented as a present-day condition.
Then and now
The site today
Cayuga Creek remains a living waterway and a useful organizing spine for environmental history. This page connects verified records geographically while preserving the difference between a source site, a sampled creek reach, and the watershed as a whole.