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Dirty Niagara river

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There was yet another black water discharge near Niagara Falls from a New York wastewater treatment plant. The water is described as inky and smelly and it could be seen by tourists on the Canadian side of the falls.

The man who posted the video to Facebook Monday morning works at the Maid of the Mist, about 100 meters away from the outlet releasing the cloudy semi-treated sewage. Later in the day there were reports of a strong chlorine odour coming from the area.

The Niagara Falls water board in the U.S. says heavy and prolonged rain along with ageing infrastructure are to blame for this discharge. They say the rain caused the wastewater system to exceed its daily capacity, 227 million litres and that overflow went straight into the Niagara River.

After a similar discharge just last week, environment officials in New York called the issues unacceptable. They even imposed a $50 000 fine for an earlier overflow back in late July that gained international attention.

The water board says the treatment system lacks storage facilities and that these overflows can not be avoided. This discharge was once again reported to the department of environmental conservation. They have issued us a statement saying they are responding to this new reported overflow today and that their investigation is ongoing.