waterway · Erie County
Two Mile Creek — Tonawanda
Tonawanda
Urban Niagara River tributary running through Sheridan Park with several distinct histories. Linde's 1944-1946 uranium-processing effluent could reach the creek through a former storm-drainage route; decades later, PCB-affected sediment and bank soil associated with the former GE transformer facility were removed. Municipal water-quality impairments and a living-shoreline project form additional, separate layers.
The documented story
What happened here?
Two Mile Creek is a short, heavily modified urban tributary passing through Sheridan Park before reaching the Niagara River in Tonawanda. Parts of its watershed and channel have long received municipal drainage, stormwater, and historically combined sanitary influences.
A separate Manhattan Project-era pathway began at Linde Air Products. Federal records state that uranium-processing wastewater was initially sent to town sewers, then alternatively discharged to five approximately 150-foot-deep on-site wells or routed through a storm sewer. When wells plugged or overflowed, liquid effluent could be diverted through a former drainage ditch into Two Mile Creek. EPA's 1982 overview reports that about 37 million gallons of radioactive-process wastewater were injected into the wells.
DOE's June 1981 survey sampled the former outfall area and locations upstream and downstream. It reported creek-bank soil, sediment and water results generally comparable to baseline locations, while identifying higher on-site concentrations near the former disposal wells. Those historical findings describe that survey and do not substitute for current sampling.
Its toxic-sediment history includes a defined pathway from the former General Electric transformer facility. Investigators concluded that PCB-affected material may have traveled through the Oriskany Drive storm sewer to the creek, prompting several phases of sediment and bank-soil investigation from 2004 through 2010.
That facility-related remedy is narrower than the creek's overall water-quality condition. Contemporary watershed summaries identify continuing concerns involving dissolved oxygen, pathogens, phosphorus, and oil or floating substances, while historic regional studies detected other persistent chemicals at particular locations and times.
USGS and DEC later deployed semipermeable membrane samplers across Two Mile, Rattlesnake, and Tonawanda creeks in 2018–19 to improve PCB source tracking. That study is a regional investigation layer; it does not erase the documented GE pathway or prove that another nearby property is a PCB source.
Chronology in context
Turning points in the public record
Historic urbanization
Channel enclosure, municipal drainage, sewer inputs, park construction, and surrounding industry transformed much of the creek's hydrology and habitat.
1944-1946
During Linde's Manhattan Engineer District uranium-processing work, storm-system drainage and overflow from the liquid-effluent disposal system could enter Two Mile Creek through a now-removed ditch.
June 1981
A federal radiological survey sampled former Linde liquid-disposal pathways, including Two Mile Creek, sewers, wells and comparison waterways.
2004–2010
Multiple investigations sampled sediment and bank soil downstream of the Oriskany Drive storm-sewer outfall serving the former GE facility.
2008
A Town of Tonawanda drainage project dredged and stabilized portions of the creek; PCB-affected sediment was removed from selected areas and confirmation samples generally met the cleanup objective.
January 2015
A limited west-bank soil excavation addressed the remaining GE-related area, with confirmation results reported below the state-approved objective.
2018–2019
USGS and DEC sampled waterborne PCBs at 29 tributary locations using passive samplers to improve source-area resolution.
2024–present
Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper advanced design for a Sheridan Park living shoreline joining restoration areas at West Pond and Two Mile Creek.
News record
Major news events
Coverage selected here marks a turning point in public awareness, policy, enforcement, employment, or cleanup. Links open at the original publisher or archive; WNYAtlas does not reproduce restricted articles or images.
Investigation follows PCB-affected sediment from a storm sewer into Two Mile Creek
Sampling connected affected sediment in defined creek areas with the Oriskany Drive storm-sewer pathway from the former GE transformer facility. Removal during 2008 drainage work and a 2015 bank excavation met the state-approved cleanup objective in confirmation samples.
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation ↗Sheridan Park living-shoreline planning connects West Pond and the creek
Waterkeeper secured funding and began design procurement for shoreline planting, lawn-to-meadow conversion, habitat improvements, and a connective corridor between West Pond and Two Mile Creek.
Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper ↗Chemical guide
Chemicals named in this record
These links explain potential hazards and exposure pathways. A chemical named in a record does not establish that anyone was exposed or harmed.
Environmental record
Documented impacts
- Federal records document Two Mile Creek as one historical liquid-effluent pathway from Linde's 1940s uranium-processing operation; this was not the same material stream as Linde-derived solid residues moved to other Tonawanda properties.
- The 1981 survey generally found sampled creek media comparable to its baseline locations. The historical discharge route should therefore not be presented as proof of a current creek-wide radiological condition.
- PCB contamination affected defined sediment and bank-soil areas associated with the former GE facility and storm-sewer pathway.
- Historic Niagara River monitoring found PCBs, DDT, dioxins or furans, and PBDEs in selected creek media or organisms. These results span different decades and do not describe one uniform current concentration.
- Modern water-quality reporting identifies municipal and stormwater-related impairment involving pathogens, nutrients or oxygen demand, and oil or floating substances.
Response
Cleanup and controls
- Selected affected sediment was removed during 2008 channel work, followed by confirmation sampling and additional limited bank-soil excavation in 2015.
- The GE corrective-measures record treats that work as the final facility-related action for Two Mile Creek; it does not certify the entire creek free of unrelated pollution.
- The proposed Sheridan Park project emphasizes woody shoreline planting, lawn-to-meadow conversion, habitat improvement, and a corridor connecting the creek with West Pond.
Then and now
The site today
Two Mile Creek combines completed source-specific PCB work with unresolved watershed-scale water-quality impairment and a new habitat-restoration phase. Those three conditions require different evidence and should remain visibly separated on the Atlas page.
Atlas connections
Connected places
These collections explain documented material, facility, waterway, ownership, or cleanup relationships. Inclusion does not imply that every place shares one contaminant source or plume.
Niagara River waterway and tributary network
The Niagara River hub connects altered tributaries, navigation channels, contaminated embayments, residential fill, source-site cleanups, and habitat projects without treating the entire river corridor as one cleanup site.
The river page organizes the regional record by reach, tributary, embayment, source site, and restoration project.
Navigation and sediment-remediation corridorBlack Rock CanalThe canal received strategic legacy-sediment dredging and remains connected to Scajaquada Creek and Unity Island habitat work.
Highly altered urban tributaryScajaquada CreekScajaquada enters Black Rock Canal after passing buried, channelized, sewer-connected, and site-specific cleanup reaches.
PCB source-tracking tributaryTwo Mile Creek — TonawandaTwo Mile and Rattlesnake creeks were included in the 2018–19 USGS/DEC passive-sampler investigation, with local sources not assumed from proximity alone.
Residential fill investigationCayuga Island Industrial Fill InvestigationCayuga Island sits within the Little Niagara River landscape near, but distinct from, major regulated disposal sites.
Lower-river tributary and embayment recordGill Creek / DuPont–Olin Chemical CorridorGill Creek has its own industrial-source, sediment, remediation, and monitoring history within the larger river corridor.
Industrial drainage and river pathwayPettit Flume / Durez OutfallThe Pettit Flume record follows a defined facility-to-river pathway and does not characterize adjoining shoreline reaches.
Waterway connection
See the documented waterway record
The separate waterways map explains the documented relationship among the historic waterbody, fill or sediment, and this Atlas site without crowding the regional map.
Linked research mapTwo Mile, Rattlesnake, and Tonawanda Creek PCB source investigation →