By RICK MILLER
Olean Star
FRANKLINVILLE — Two groups of people demonstrated Friday outside the Great Lakes Cheese plant on Route 16 north of Franklinville, protesting discharges from the plant into Ischua Creek linked to a massive die-off of fish and aquatic animals.
Around noon on Friday, a group of about 25 local residents gathered with signs along the shoulder of Route 16 in front of the plant.
And later, at 4:30 p.m. a similar number of members of the Cattaraugus-Allegany Liberation Collective and other local residents protested outside the plant.
State police and Cattaraugus County sheriff’s deputies had an increased presence in the area.
A Great Lakes Cheese spokesman issued a statement on the protests:
“We realize and understand that the community and our neighbors are very concerned about the discharge incident at Ischua Creek.
“Great Lakes Cheese is committed to being a good neighbor and this includes being good stewards of the environment. This commitment is a foundational core to our business operations.
“At this time, we continue to work very closely with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation in continuous monitoring of the creek and we are communicating with DEC officials on a daily basis throughout the ongoing investigation and assessment process.
“We respect the right of our neighbors to voice their concerns and we are working to restore their trust as we continue to rectify this matter.”
The company left several boxes of pizzas and soft drinks on tables just off the shoulder of the road for the protesters “as a gesture of good will.”
Meanwhile, testing of nine private residential water wells by the Cattaraugus County Health Department has not shown any evidence of impact from the Great Lakes Cheese discharge into the creek.
“There is no problem with the drinking water from those wells,” Public Health Director Dr. Kevin D. Watkins told the Olean Star on Friday. “It is good news for the residents,” some of whom had been boiling water as a precaution.
“We plan to continue to take samples from the wells over the next six weeks or so,” Watkins added.
The state Department of Environmental Conservation continues to remove fish from the creek and its banks and monitor water conditions.
Great Lakes Cheese is being required to “take immediate actions to address impacts and investigate the plant’s organic waste discharge into Ischua Creek,” DEC said in a statement Thursday.
“Following the facility’s voluntary pause on wastewater discharges to Ischua Creek on Aug. 29, no wastewater is being discharged to the waterbody and DEC is closely overseeing all modifications being proposed to prevent any future discharges that could damage natural resources.”
DEC added: “Water quality concerns remain primarily focused on the discharge from GLC’s wastewater treatment operations, which handle milk and other dairy processing materials that contribute to low dissolved oxygen and elevated nutrients, temperature, and dissolved constituents such as total dissolved solids.
“These factors can affect fish and wildlife survival, particularly during the warm and low stream conditions that existed last week. DEC continues to closely monitor impacts on fish and wildlife, including during this week’s anticipated rain events.”
Ken Kelner, one of the protesters out in front of the Great Lakes Cheese plant Friday afternoon, said he has been fishing in Ischua Creek for 60 years. He was heartbroken at the sight of all the dead fish and animals like muskrats, beaver and turtles. He doesn’t know if the fishery can be restored.
He’s afraid animals and birds that eat the dead fish will also get sick and die. He said he saw an eagle having difficulty flying up from the creek at Farwell Road earlier this week.
Kelner said he doesn’t think it was only organic waste that was responsible for the fish kill. He said GLC employees have blamed a cleaning solution used inside one of the tall tanks outside the plant. He said it would have taken more than just organic waste eating up oxygen in the creek to kill some of the animals.
The company has a DEC permit to discharge up to 900,000 gallons of treated water from the GLC treatment plant. Kelner said that was too much for Ischua Creek, which was low and water from hot summer weather.
“It’s all the way to Kent’s,” Kellner said of the extent of the fish kill.
Ani Watkins of Ischua said she was at the protest “because I have seen the devastation firsthand.” Her sign read: “Great lakes Cheese brought more than jobs to Cattaraugus County.”
