Photo by Catherine Landis. Used with permission of TSN. All rights reserved. Image description: A stream with Heart Leaf Plantain and many other wetland plants is shimmering and reflecting the forest above, emerging from the lower right of the image and curving around to the upper left. On the near bank is the base of a large tree, behind which is a steep bank. On the far bank, just a few yards across, are many trees and green understory plants.
STAMP will negatively impact REgional Water quality
- The site plan for STAMP fails to account for the pollution impacts from an estimated daily increase of 600 diesel trucks per day on a rural country road and a wastewater pipeline discharging up to 6 million gallons daily (MGD) of effluent through the Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge into Oak Orchard Creek.
- Current STAMP tenant Plug Power proposes to implement a wastewater "purification" process that would raise local in-stream water temperatures, concentrate minerals and other impurities in wastewater by at least 15x, and use 135,000 gallons per day of municipal grade water.
- Runoff from the STAMP site flows west toward high-quality wetlands on the Tonawanda Seneca Nation.
- Runoff from STAMP site parking lots will contain de-icing salts during winter months, causing the salinization of nearby waterways and conditions likely to result in the replacement of biodiverse plant communities with monocultures of salt tolerant competitors such as Common Reed (Phragmites australis).
- Whitney Creek, which flows through the STAMP site, currently earns the highest Stream Visual Assessment Protocol (SVAP) score based on riparian area quality, fish and aquatic invertebrate habitat, hydrologic alteration, and canopy cover. This Creek, site of highest water quality for flowing streams in the areas, is also planned as the location for the site’s most intensive manufacturing operations.
- Runoff from the STAMP site will significantly impair local and regional waterways.
- Climate change impacts have not been analyzed.
