Vote to end Water Board ‘witchhunt’ Wednesday
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Last year, the Niagara Falls Water Board conducted tests on fracking water to decide whether or not to begin treating the highly toxic substance in their facilities.
Because fracking waste is dangerous - containing carcinogens, radioactive materials and heavy metals - the Niagara Falls City Council banned fracking waste treatment last March.
However, in August, leaked photos, taken at the water treatment plant on Buffalo Ave. obtained and published by the Niagara Falls Reporter, showed that the fracking waste water used for initial testing was still in Niagara Falls and had not been sent back to Pennsylvania like Executive Director Paul Drof publicly stated.
Last month, the Reporter again broke another story concerning the fracking waste water.
Drof and the Niagara Falls Water Board were spending public money to conduct an investigation into who leaked the photos to the Reporter.
That’s right, the Water Board authorized public dollars not to find out why the Water Board had illegal frack water on site, six months after a law was passed making it illegal to store, but rather who blew the whistle on them and showed the law was being broken.
On Wednesday, November 21, at the Michael C. O'Laughlin Municipal Water Plant in Niagara Falls, the Niagara Falls Water Board will be voting on a resolution to decide whether or not to call off the investigation to find the whistle blower.
Rita Yelda, of Food and Water Watch, an environmental group opposed to hydraulic fracking, will be holding a press conference prior to the meeting to try to get public support to end what some are now calling a “witchhunt.”
“The hero who reported the law being broken (should) not punished!,” Yelda said, “... We need concerned community members to help us pack the room for the vote.”
The Federal government has whistle blower protection laws, and if it is determined that the Water Board has violated these laws in a mad quest to punish someone who only reported a law being broken, there may be repercussions.
Namely, a lawsuit and penalties that may include punitive damages and heavy fines.
The funny part about it is this: the water rate payers of Niagara Falls will pay those fines and penalties, and not Drof and the members of the Water Board.