The Buffalo River (River) is approximately 8.7 miles long with an approximate average width of 300 feet. It is formed by the confluence of the Buffalo and Cayuga Creeks. Additional source water is supplied by a third tributary, Cazenovia Creek, which flows into the River downstream of the confluence with Cayuga Creek. The River then empties into Lake Erie at the head of the Niagara River. The City Ship Canal, also referred to as the Buffalo Ship Canal, forms a spur of aquatic habitat that stretches approximately 1.4 miles parallel to the Lake Erie shoreline from the mouth of the River south to the Tift Nature Preserve. The Canal was originally constructed in 1850, widened in 1873, and lengthened in 1883. The River and the City Ship Canal serve as important habitat for warmwater fish, migratory birds, and other wildlife. The Buffalo River is also a significant cultural site of the Haudenosaunee and is the location of the former Buffalo Creek Reservation.

The River has endured a history of anthropogenic contamination. The River and City Ship Canal have been a historical center of shipping commerce, and as a result, much of the shoreline is industrialized and channelized. The River is maintained by the USACE as a navigable waterway, with dredging operations conducted periodically in the lower 5.8 miles of the River to maintain minimal depths for navigation. The industrial development along the River and growing municipality resulted in contamination of the River and City Ship Canal with hazardous substances including PAHs, PCBs, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, mercury, nickel, lead, zinc, aniline, benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene (BTEX), phenols, and oil.

To address the sediment contamination, the Buffalo River Restoration Partnership undertook two major environmental dredging projects. The first environmental dredging project, Phase 1, removed an estimated 550,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediments from the federal navigation channel. The second environmental dredging project, Phase 2, removed approximately 453,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment outside of the navigation channel, with targeted removal depths to clay or glacial till. In addition, approximately 50,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment within the City Ship Canal were capped to isolate contamination. Natural resources (e.g., surface water, sediments, invertebrates, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals) have been exposed to and adversely affected by these contaminants. The Trustees, the United States Department of the Interior, acting through the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), the Tuscarora Nation, and the State of New York, acting through the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC), evaluated injury from the hazardous substance to surface water, sediment, sediment-dwelling invertebrates, fish, and groundwater using measured contaminant concentration data to inform the expected magnitude and severity of injury.

The Trustees released a draft Restoration Plan in September 2021. In February 2022, the Trustees settled a natural resource damage claim with the Responsible Parties, Honeywell International Inc. and others for the Buffalo River, New York. The February 2022 Buffalo River Natural Resource Damage Consent Decree, with a value of approximately $6.25 million, will restore natural resources and their services, and preserve, in perpetuity, more than 70 acres of undeveloped habitat along the Buffalo River in Buffalo, New York, benefiting fish and wildlife resources and the City of Buffalo community, including low income and minority groups. The Consent Decree outlines specific restoration projects to be implemented by the Trustees and also includes additional funding for Trustee sponsored natural resource restoration projects. Specifically, this funding will be used for natural resource restoration efforts in accordance with the Consent Decree, the Trustee MOA, and the Restoration Plan. The Restoration Plan preferred restoration alternative is implementation of a suite of restoration projects that compensate for losses and satisfy the site-specific and regulatory criteria from the following restoration categories: instream and stream bank, wetland, and upland enhancement and restoration, land preservation, and natural resource-based public use enhancement.