Sewage spill in Niagara River under investigation

New York officials are still looking into the sewage spill that left Niagara Falls tourists floating in stinky sludge the weekend before last.

The smelly black pool horrified visitors to Niagara on July 29, and reportedly kept them from buying food from local eateries. The New York sewage treatment plant responsible said that the sludge was a discharge of backwash water which is black because it has been partially treated and runs through carbon filters. The backwash was supposed to be shut off before the river turned black but the employee in charge of the task had left his post to help another employee. The discharge dissipated later that same day.

The Niagara Falls water board, which runs the sewage treatment plant, says the problem was identified and it won’t happen again.

Other nearby sewage treatment plants including the one on the Ontario side say they don’t ever discharge directly into the Niagara River so that the same problem could never happen.

New York officials are concerned since this happened on a busy Saturday at the peak of tourist season.

Governor Andrew Cuomo has ordered an investigation.