Investigation into illegal frack water warranted?

December 12, 2011, Water Board Executive Director Paul Drof (left) tells New York State Senators there is no frack water at the facilities. The problem with his statement is, it was untrue. Perhaps an investigation is warranted to determine how secure the facility is when its executive director does not know the whereabouts or existence of highly poisonous frack water on site.

One thing is clear: Executive Director of the Water Authority, Paul Drof mistaken when he told New York State Senators there was no frack water on the premises last December.

The Reporter learned of the existence and has seen the video, filmed during a hearing of the State Senate Environmental Conservation Committee, held at Canandaigua, New York, on Dec. 12, 2011. On the video, (www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGjZxbiTMGQ) Drof tells State Sen. Patrick Gallivan and Sen. Mark Grisanti that the frack wastewater that was brought to the Niagara Falls water treatment plant for testing, was “sent back to Pennsylvania for disposal."

Consider: Drof told State Senators that, as of Dec. 12, 2011, there was no frack water at the facility.

On March 6, 2012, the Niagara Falls City Council passed a frack ban.
On August 16, 2012, a Water Board whistleblower sent us photos showing frack water stored at the treatment plant.
On August 17, 2012, Drof, when confronted by the photos, by the Chief of Police and the head of Code Enforcement, said he thought it had been previously removed.

Was Drof mistaken when he told State Senators that frack water had been shipped back to its source and he did not know that jugs labeled “frack water” were sitting in plain view at the laboratory of the treatment plant?

Was he correct when he told Senators in December that the frack water was removed, but since that time the Water Board accepted additional frack water in anticipation of State Department of Environmental Conservation approval of fracking in New York State, between December and August?

Did Drof violate the law by keeping frack water for months on site?

“I am very curious,” said council member Glenn Chooklokian, who sponsored the ordinance making frack water storage and treatment illegal in Niagara Falls, and who is an employee of the water authority. “Have they been doing more testing or have they been treating frack water after the ordinance was passed?”

An investigation is warranted.