By RICK MILLER
Olean Star
FRANKLINVILLE — Great Lakes Cheese will be required to restore Ischua Creek as part of any state enforcement action against the Franklinville cheese plant.
State Environmental Commissioner Amanda Lefton announced on Saturday that Great Lakes Cheese will be asked to pay for damage to Ischua Creek, a popular trout stream contaminated by a discharge from the plant’s wastewater treatment plant.
Late last month the DEC required Great Lakes Cheese to pause its operations and not discharge any further treated waste into the creek until officials can determine why it occurred and what can be done to see it doesn’;t occur again.
The last statement from the company on Sept. 7 said, “Great Lakes Cheese continues to work diligently in close, daily collaboration with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to address the unfortunate environmental event in Ischua Creek.
Our immediate priority continues to be understanding the health of the creek and implementing improvements to our wastewater treatment facility utilized for cheese making operations.”
The statement added: “We are encouraged by the significant improvements, in a short time, to the creek reported by the DEC and thank them for their ongoing assistance.
“We remain committed to fulfilling our responsibility to run environmentally responsible operations and support more than 500 local employee-owners, dozens of New York family dairies, and the broader Farmersville and Franklinville communities.”
Lefton, the DEC commissioner, said, “Following the devastating water quality and habitat impacts to Ischua Creek in Franklinville, Cattaraugus County, DEC took immediate action to address water quality violations and deployed dozens of our experts in water, wildlife, incident management, and enforcement.
“The findings of DEC’s investigation to date indicates that discharges from the Great Lakes Cheese’s operations are the primary cause of the August 2025 fish and wildlife die-off.
“DEC is continuing its comprehensive investigation into water quality and wildlife impacts to Ischua Creek. We are using every enforcement tool at our disposal to address all violations at Great Lakes Cheese to ensure the protection of the air, land, and water in this community.
“DEC is evaluating all enforcement tools at our disposal regarding this incident and outstanding violations and will pursue any natural resource damages as appropriate to ensure the restoration of the impacted section of Ischua Creek.”
Great Lakes Cheese, which opened in November 2024 as operations were transitioned from the company’s old plant in Cuba, has a DEC permit to dispose of up to 900,000 gallons of treated water from the plant into the creek every day.
The plant has reportedly exceeded the amount of pollutants being discharged into the creek 20 times since the plant opened. Discharged into the creek in excess of the permit were nitrogen, ammonia, chlorine and phosphorus.
The Buffalo News reported monitoring from the EPA’s Enforcement and Compliance History Online Site showed nitrogen and ammonia discharge levels exceeded permitted levels by 700%.
DEC has not released a list of contaminants discharged into the creek that killed tens of thousands of fish and aquatic animals, but said the creek had low dissolved oxygen levels and high levels of nitrates and ammonia.
Dead fish could be seen from bridges across the creek as far as Five Mile Road and Farwell Road. Many more fish have been left to rot along the creek banks.
DEC has not lifted its recommendation that people stay out of the creek and avoid fishing, swimming or boating.
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