Gates hopes for sewage-free summer
Media treated to tour of new equipment at N.Y. water board facility after 2017 mess
Nearly a year after a sewage discharge turned the Niagara River below the falls into a foulsmelling toilet, the Niagara Falls Water Board in Niagara Falls, N.Y., says upgrades have been made to ensure the ugly scene isn’t repeated.
The board, which was fined $50,000 by New York State following the July 29 incident, invited the media into its treatment plant Monday to inspect new equipment and treatment chemicals designed to prevent another messy spill.
Board members called it a “culture shift” since receiving heavy criticism from the spillage during a busy tourist weekend last year, which saw sewage envelop the dock at the Maid of the Mist on the U.S. side.
It was followed by additional discharges on Aug. 15 and Oct. 4, prompting Niagara Falls MPP Wayne Gates to ask the provincial government to liaise with its American counterpart to further investigate the discharges.
Contacted Tuesday, Gates said the American side took the problem serious, but the Ontario government “never did.”
“Of the two governments, the Americans took it a lot more serious than the Liberal government did,” he said.
“But at the end of the day, I have no reason to doubt (the water board’s) report. Let’s hope it’s true. If they’ve fixed that terrible problem, that’s good news for everybody, good news for the environment, good news for both sides of the border.”
Outdated equipment and poor communication were blamed for the initial discharge, which created embarrassing national and international attention. Images of the July 29 spill showed a massive black spill spreading from the American side, where tourist boats dock.
“I couldn’t imagine what the tourists were going through on the Maid of the Mist with raw sewage all around,” said Gates.
“Hopefully (the board) has taken all the steps they need so it never happens again. It just highlights how important it is to protect our environment.
“The one thing that really gets people going, quite frankly, is the environment. Sometimes people don’t get the importance of our environment, but young people do. Young families certainly do.”