Full Notification

Concerned citizens contacted the City to make us aware of gray-colored water entering Silver Creek. City crews followed the creek from Neahwa Park upstream to the SUNY Oneonta campus. It was determined that a project on the SUNY campus was dewatering geothermal wells into a stormwater retention basin. Water from the drilling process was filtering through the soil and inadvertently entering a nearby storm structure and storm sewer main, which ultimately discharges into Silver Creek. Project representatives were unaware that this was occurring and immediately ceased pumping operations once they were made aware of the situation. We extend our appreciation to everyone who contacted the City and brought this situation to our attention. Your reports allowed City crews to quickly investigate, identify the source, and have the pumping operations stopped.