More than two months after a toxic leak into the Welland River was first reported, the situation appears to have gone from bad to worse. The leak was first noticed by local environmental activists and reported on July 2. Those reports resulted in a coordinated response by the City of Niagara Falls and the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) creating a sense among some citizens that with the proper authorities alerted the leak would be quickly stopped.
That sense of confidence appears to have been misplaced.
Six weeks later, in late August, despite efforts to identify the source and clean up residual contaminants, the leak persisted. Local activist Mike Cushman has been monitoring the site consistently, while fellow activist Sarah Ward took it upon herself to collect samples of the substance leaking into the river and pay to have it analyzed. The pair had a growing sense of angst about what they were witnessing.
“I was concerned about the public and the environment and knew authorities may not react due to limited resources,” Ward told The Pointer. “I watched the substance go into the river for over an hour. My family and friends swim, row and fish in these waters and the negative impact was clear.”
On September 6, the leak reached its worst levels to date. A heavy black oily substance was observed pouring from the drainage pipe south of Don Murie Street, connected to a nearby industrial area. It was documented and again reported to the City and provincial environment ministry. The sock booms the City had placed in the water seemed useless and not up to the task of stopping the thick substance.
“You can clearly see in the pictures how it is absorbing very little and most of the substance seems to pass right over it,” Ward states.
Cushman expresses dismay that in his dialogues with the MECP, officials are placing the onus on the City, but according to him the City will not spend the resources required to solve this problem.
When questioned by The Pointer about this latest leak, a spokesperson for the Ministry responded in part that: “On Friday, September 6, 2024, the ministry received two reports indicating an oily substance was observed discharging to the Welland River. The ministry notified the City of Niagara Falls as the owner and responsible operator of stormwater infrastructure which discharges to an unnamed creek which flows into the Welland River.”
Erik Nickel, General Manager of Municipal Works for the City described how they are continuing with flushing the storm sewer and remote camera inspections to try and track the source of the leak. City staff are monitoring the site frequently, he states.
Nickel notes that the discharges have been irregular, different in nature, and discrete (not continuous), all of which combine to make it very difficult to track to a source. He says the provincial environment ministry needs to do more to assist with stopping the leak which is having unknown consequences on surrounding ecosystems.
“We expect MECP to action their resources to do private property follow-up based on these observations plus additional evidence they collected,” Nickel states.
The expectation of further action from the provincial government was echoed at a city council meeting only a few days after this latest spill was detected.
Councillor Lori Lococco addressed the fact that since July councillors and staff have received numerous calls and emails from citizens concerned about the spill. She wanted to know where this leak was coming from and why it had not been stopped. In response to her questions the city’s CAO Jason Burgess responded in part:
“We only have so much legislative authority and we don’t have the technical skills to be involved in some of this stuff,” he said. “It’s very difficult for the City to take the lead on some of these items. We have to rely on the Ministry and other participants who have the responsibility. I don’t ask the province to come down and plow our streets, that’s our responsibility. At the end of the day the people who have the legislative and technical resources have to step up...(you can’t) ask the City to be the answer to all causes, we just get stretched too thin.”
According to Ministry spokesperson Lindsay Davidson, their inspections of the industries in the area of the storm sewer systems are on-going and no source of the contaminants has been found. The ministry continues dialogue with local industry to ensure they “understand their obligations under environmental legislation”.
All of it leaves Cushman feeling uncomfortable. The system is broken as far as he’s concerned and neither level of government is taking this seriously enough.
“Who is protecting our environment and our health?” he asks.
“Decision-makers must do a better job to prioritize and adequately fund environmental protection to safeguard both our environment and public health,” Ward states.
Ed Smith is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter based at The Pointer.
