OLEAN — The state has offered $500,000 to help the city with coming up with solutions for wastewater discharges into the Allegheny River.

Mayor Bill Aiello told the Common Council on Tuesday that he was notified earlier in the day that the state has committed $500,000 for engineering plans to help stop the discharges, which in recent years have been triggered by high rainfalls overwhelming pump stations.

“These funds are a game changer for Olean and surrounding communities,” the mayor said, adding the work will guide the city into fixing discharge problems and are necessary to apply for grants to complete upgrades.

The mayor thanked the Seneca Nation of Indians and Seneca President J.C. Seneca for efforts communicating with the governor’s office and the state Department of Environmental Conservation, which the mayor said were important to getting the aid.

For decades, the city’s wastewater system has sent untreated water into the river, referred to as a bypass as it bypasses the treatment system. A 1983 study indicated catch basins and rooftop sewer drains connected to the sanitary sewer were major causes of wastewater bypasses into the river, as well as lift stations being overwhelmed and failures at the wastewater treatment plant.

After failing to take action for decades, city officials signed two DEC consent orders — agreements to settle potentially millions of dollars in fines for violations of state law — which required $25 million in upgrades to the city’s wastewater treatment plant, as well as $250,000 a year in investments for decades to upgrade the approximately 76-miles of sanitary sewer running under the city.

Since upgrades were completed to the plant, many smaller discharges have been stopped, but the state implemented a public reporting system in 2013 which brought attention to the sporadic but high flow discharges from the city’s lift stations along the river and tributaries. Those discharges have all been linked to heavy rainfall or power outages, but since generators and upgraded alarms were installed, all discharges in the past half-decade have been linked to heavy, short-duration downpours.

One such instance, on June 19, 2024, saw more than 4 inches of rain fall in minutes — more than the average for the entire month — and sent more than 200,000 gallons of untreated water into the river as several lift stations were overwhelmed. Just days before that series of discharges, the mayor and Common Council agreed to prepare an engineering study request following public outcry over two discharges that April.

Several threats of legal action by SNI leadership over the past several years led the city and SNI to form a joint task force this April to combat the discharges. The state aid for engineering was part of that initiative, the mayor said.