New information tonight on the black substance discharged into the Niagara River on Saturday.
Police in Niagara Falls, New York are now investigating what happened, while water experts on this side of the border are concerned that we “still” don’t know “exactly” what was discharged.
The Niagara Falls Water Board issued a statement, explaining why this black liquid was discharged into the Niagara River on the weekend.
In the statement, chairman Dan O’Callaghan said that it was backwash water that “was treated to remove solids and contained mostly carbon fines, and some suspended solids that the treatment process did not remove. this is normal” he adds.
But Brock University professor Ian Brindle says he still wants to know what else was in the backwash.
“My concern is with the statements like that is what’s not said, what testing was done so we know what was discharged doesn’t contain bacteria.”
Brindle is a water contamination expert. He says bacteria was more than likely attached to the carbon particles.
“That material was flowing down the Niagara River, and if there was bacteria in it, a risk to the bathers down by the waterside in Niagara-on-the-Lake.”
The Waterboard chairman said as a “result of possible human error and possible mechanical malfunction, a larger quantity of water from the sediment tank was released into the lower niagara river than was supposed to happen.”
The Mayor of Niagara Falls, New York is upset about the lack information and issued this statement.
“Now is not the time to play politics. Saturday’s incident is a serious matter and one that is actively being investigated by Niagara Falls Police and the department of environmental conservation. ”
Ian Brindle says having the water tested before it’s discharged would answer a lot of his concerns.
“If it were me, I would want to see a regular basis that those discharge materials are checked and that there’s a better way of discharging suspended solids that they’re using.”
Niagara falls on both sides of the border gets it’s drinking water from the Upper Niagara River, so that’s not a concern.
And professor Brindle added that the Niagara River flows at more than 2800 tonnes a second, so the discharge would have been swept into Lake Ontario within minutes.
