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Water Board Director's Memory A Bit Foggy on 'Frack Water'?

By James Hufnagel & Frank Parlato

"The Water Board wholeheartedly
supports... the safe treatment of flowback
(frack) water" Paul Drof, Executive
Director Niagara Falls Water
Board, told New York State Senators,
December 12, 2011.
State Senators Patrick Gallivan and Mark Grisanti listen to Niagara Falls
Water Board Executive Director Paul
Drof tell them that hazardous frack
water has been removed from his facility, as of December 12, 2011.
“Illegal frack water was still at the
treatment plant laboratory as of August 2012.
Secret- shots taken of illegal ‘frack
water’ at the Water Authority Sewer plant on Buffalo Avenue.
The plan was to charge big money
to accept frack water at the treatment
plant (above), remove enough hazardous chemicals to make it “safe” to discharge into the Niagara River (below). There is a serious debate raging as to whether this could both make money and/or poison our water
supply for years to come.

As revealed two weeks ago by the Niagara Falls Reporter, photos of plastic jugs of light, brownish liquid, labeled “frack water,” were delivered to this newspaper by a confidential source.

Upon this newspaper’s inquiry, it was learned that it was frack water (waste water from hydro-fracking) from the Niagara Falls Water Board’s Buffalo Avenue water treatment plant and its presence there was in direct violation of the city ordinance banning storage, testing or treating of frack water.

Niagara Falls Water Board Executive Director Paul J. Drof admitted frack water was left there, its presence an oversight. He told the Niagara Falls Chief of Police, John Chella, and Acting Code Enforcement Director Dennis Virtuoso that, as soon as he found out about it, he arranged for it to be picked up and removed by the “Pennsylvania company” that brought it there.

Now a video has surfaced, filmed months before, and brought to the attention of the Reporter, that raises a number of questions. At an official hearing of the State Senate Environmental Conservation Committee, held at Canandaigua, New York on Dec. 12, 2011, a meeting that was filmed, Drof told State Sen. Patrick Gallivan that a quantity of frack wastewater had been brought to the Niagara Falls water treatment plant for testing, and was “sent back to Pennsylvania for disposal."

Let us look at the time line: Drof told State Senators that, as of Dec. 12, 2011, there was a total absence of frack water stored at his facility.

The Niagara Falls City Council passed a frack ban on March 6, 2012.

A Water Board whistleblower sent us photos on August 16, 2012 showing frack water stored at the treatment plant.
On August 17, 2012, Drof, when confronted by the photos in the Reporter’s possession, by the Chief of Police and the head of Code Enforcement, said he thought it had been previously removed.

Later that day, Drof said it was removed. He told the Reporter in a recorded message this week, “The sample in question, fracking water, was removed by the consultant. It was his water. Within one hour of being notified that it was still on our premises, the water was removed.”

This means one of two likely possibilities occurred.

1) Drof was mistaken in December when he told State Senators that frack water had been shipped back to its source and he hadn’t noticed nor was it brought to his attention that several 2.5 gallon containers of labeled “frack water” was sitting in plain view on a shelf at the laboratory of the treatment plant.

2) He was 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, for further testing purposes, sometime between December and August. If it was after March 6, it was in violation of the city ban.

In either case, Drof did not know of the frack water’s existence for months on site.

Water Board Member Renae Kimble identified the consultant that removed the frack water as GHD (www.ghd.com). GHD is a network of engineers, architects and environmental scientists serving clients in the global markets of water, energy and resources, environment, property and buildings, and transportation. Their emphasis is, according to their website, hydrofracking and its treatment.
The company has at least 25 offices in the USA and while Drof describes the company as a “Pennsylvania company,” GHD does have offices in Amherst, New York.

It is no secret some members of the Niagara Falls Water Board strongly support treating fracking wastewater and, at one time, said they were prepared to sue the city over its ban on activities associated with fracking.

City Councilman Glenn Choolokian, who is also a Water Board employee, spearheaded the council ban. He expressed concern about this latest development: "I am very curious. Have they been doing more testing or have they been treating frack water after the ordinance was passed? We need proof as to which it was.”

How Drof and his staff disposed of the carcinogenic waste, which also contains high levels of radioactivity, will also be held to closer scrutiny, according to Choolokian.

“The day (August 17) they (supposedly got rid of) the frackwater, Dennis Virtuoso was supposed to get some kind of receipt showing a Pennsylvania company (retrieved the frackwater),” said Choolokian. “I am going to follow up and make sure they got copies or receipts or if they even took it out."

Virtuoso told the Reporter he has received assurances from Drof that the frack water has been removed, but did not witness its removal.

At this point, the jury is out on whether or not the hazardous waste known as frack water can be safely handled. Many informed people, who will also make money by hydro fracking, say that it is safe.

Numerous prestigious environmental groups say it is not and can never be a safe practice.

The Niagara Falls Water Board, a self-sustaining public benefit corporation, has about 19,000 residential, commercial and industrial accounts. It has an operating budget of about $25 million and produced 6.6 billion gallons of water last year, piped through nearly 550 miles of water and sewer lines they maintain.

At the end of the day, one cannot help but raise an issue: If the Niagara Falls Water Board can't keep track and account for several gallons of the highly toxic radioactive frack fluid, a fluid at the center of controversy across the nation and in this city, how well can they handle millions of gallons of this hazardous waste, should it ever be demonstrated that prudent handling could be both profitable and safe.

Stay tuned.

 

 

Niagara Falls Reporter www.niagarafallsreporter.com Sep 11 , 2012