The restoration of the Buffalo River forged a unique partnership with private industry, government and a first-in-the-nation cost-sharing agreement involving a not-for-profit organization.

Tens of millions of dollars went toward ridding toxins from the river’s sediment and shorelines. Ecological habitat, lost to nearly a century’s worth of industrial degradation, was restored along more than 6 miles of the river’s banks. Then the development began with apartments, restaurants and bars, shops and community parks.

The Buffalo River scored more global acclaim this week for coming back from the ecologically dead.

This time, the International Association for Great Lakes Research recognized the river – and efforts to restore it – as an environmental and economic success story.

“Buffalo is an example for others to follow,” said John H. Hartig of the University at Windsor, a co-author of the 113-page report that was released this week.

The report featured Buffalo first among a field of 10 Great Lakes cities that also include Detroit, Cleveland, Hamilton, Ont., and Toronto for waterfront revitalization.

It’s the umpteenth time praise has been heaped on the Buffalo River’s restoration.

This 113-page report from the International Association for Great Lakes Research highlights Buffalo's accomplishments to restore its waterfront. Click on the image to read the report. (IAGLR)

According to authors of the IAGLR report, the reason for its revival is evident: “Public-private partnerships have been essential to this cleanup effort.”

It also is evident to Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper, an organization which ties its existence to the river’s cleanup.

The organization began as the fledgling Friends of the Buffalo River group of a few concerned residents and environmental advocates in the mid 1980s. Charged with developing a plan to remediate the river corridor, it later became Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper and led the river’s cleanup.

“We really did kind of break the mold. Now it’s become the norm. It’s a model that works,” said Jill Jedlicka, executive director of that organization.

The trail-blazing done by Waterkeeper earned it the prestigious Thiess International Riverprize in 2016, the preeminent global environmental award for river stewardship.

It also led to Jedlicka being named in June as one of 20 “Waterkeeper Warriors” from across the world by the Waterkeeper Alliance.

The successes in and around Buffalo and its river have also spurred attention from news organizations like the New York Times, Forbes and the Christian Science Monitor.

In June, People magazine even ranked Buffalo the 19th reason “to love America” for its Rust Belt to renaissance transition. The city placed just behind the Jonas Brothers, but one spot ahead of Celebrity Cruises in the list.

Buffalo makes People magazine's '100 Reasons to Love America in 2019'

“We’re just getting warmed up,” Rep. Brian Higgins told The Buffalo News this week. “This will change Buffalo for the next 100 years.”

Higgins was a city councilman invited to join Friends of the Buffalo River in the mid 1980s with the aim of curing the Buffalo River of its ills.

Fast-forward three decades. Was any of this foreseeable?

“I don’t think it was luck,” Higgins said. “I think it was hard work and perseverance, and I think this was all part of our strategic vision.”

“It was about a 30-year plan . And our strategy was, ‘you can’t rebuild Buffalo’s waterfront on polluted waterways,’” Higgins said.

Funding to get the river cleaned up came from the federal Great Lakes Legacy Act and then the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. It came through a consent order negotiated with Honeywell International that saw the company pump millions of dollars into the river’s restoration.

It involved the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, state Department of Environmental Conservation and other agencies.

And the “friends” environmental advocacy group that transitioned to the Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper, then to its current Waterkeeper moniker, invested too and kept the process moving toward its goal.

“Buffalo is a great example on what collaborating on financing can do,” Hartig said.

Now more and more private sector investment is spurring the momentum leading redevelopment between Canalside and Old Bailey Woods.

Among those waterfront development projects and investments cited by the study were:

• Buffalo Riverworks on Ganson Street, $15 million.

• The Explore and More Children’s Museum at Canalside, $36 million.

• Buffalo Harborcenter, $250 million.

• 301 Ohio Street, $15 million.

"The Buffalo River is now an economic engine, which hand-in-hand with our re-imagined waterfront is playing a critical role in Buffalo's rebirth as the Queen City of the Great Lakes," Buffalo Mayor Byron W. Brown told the report's authors.

Last fall, a University of Michigan economics report found that Buffalo was reaping a roughly 4-to-1 reward on its waterfront restoration investments.

That’s justification enough to keep public funding from sources like the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative flowing Buffalo’s way, many say.

Buffalo seeing economic gains from Great Lakes restoration efforts

“When you clean up the waterways, people rediscover the water,” Hartig said. “Reconnecting to the waterways leads to community and economic revitalization.”

Hartig said this new study was designed to identify things even beyond sheer dollars and cents. Sure, it outlined economic development successes, but it also illustrated the benefits achieved from an environmental and quality of life point of view.

“We wanted to do a deep dive on these case studies,” Hartig said.

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In addition to the post-cleanup economic development projects, Buffalo’s case study also included an inventory of the more than 2 miles of shoreline at seven separate sites where habitat restoration was completed along the river. Those included restoration at the Ohio Street Boat Launch, Old Bailey Woods, the Buffalo Color Peninsula, Riverbend, the Blue Tower Turning Basin, Toe of Katherine Street and the Buffalo Motor & Generator Corp. on Ohio Street.

The study also detailed some of the lessons learned and outlined a road map to achieve the long-term sustainability of Great Lakes restoration.

What has it all meant for Buffalo?

“It changes everything,” Higgins said. “It’s not only the economics of it, it’s the life quality and the image change that Buffalo’s undergone only in the last several years.”

“Buffalo is the talk of the nation,” Higgins added.

The next several years are expected to bring another huge accomplishment: The formal delisting of the Buffalo River as a federal Area of Concern by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Jedlicka expects that could come in 2022.