The City of Jamestown's first sewer treatment facility built in the 1920s, was replaced in 1956 by a primary treatment plant which consisted of screening, filtering, and settling out some harmful substances and objects.

Secondary treatment, which means treating the used water with chemicals or bacteria that destroy the remaining harmful substances, came in 1966 when trickling filters and secondary clarifiers were added.

In 1975, an engineering study of the facility recommended an advanced degree of wastewater treatment be undertaken by upgrading the facilities to tertiary capabilities.

The $13,656,000 project, begun in 1983 and funded by federal grants for 75% of the cost, state grants of 12.5% and local funding of 12.5%, brought the city's sewage treatment into the tertiary level through nitrification by adding the rotating biological contactors or RBCs. More than 93% of the suspended solids and oxygen demanding matter is now removed from Jamestown's raw sewage, in addition to 80% of its nitrogen compounds.

In 1994, the City of Jamestown designated responsibility for the city's wastewater treatment to the Board of Public Utilities.

The utility treated 700,000 gallons of leachate in a pilot program with the Chautauqua County Landfill in 1996 without adverse effects on the operations at the treatment plant and applied for permission to continue the treatment. The plant handled and disposed of 900,000 gallons of sludge from the South and Central Sewer Chautauqua Lake Sewer District that same year, with the hopes of developing a mutually satisfactory contract to continue the process.

Falconer, NY residents became customers of the BPU Wastewater Division in 1994.

In 2000, the Wastewater Treatment Plant's certification was increased to support receiving and treating 12,000,000 gallons of sewage per day.