Great Lakes Mayors Raise Concern Over Proposed Fracking Waste Discharge To Niagara River

By Doug Draper

 A coalition of Canadian and U.S. mayors around the Great Lakes, chaired by St. Catharines, Ontario Mayor Brian McMullan, is calling on provincial, state and federal governments for public hearings and “for utmost transparency and disclosure” when it comes to the potential impact of ‘fracking wastes’ on Great Lakes waters.

St. Catharines mayor and Great Lakes mayors' coalition chair Brian McMullan.

 “We are saying that this is such an important issue that we want to make sure that municipalities are part of the discussion and that the discussion is transparent,” said McMullan in a recent interview with Niagara At Large following a meeting of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative earlier this December.

 This initiative or coalition, established in 2003 and made up of 82 mayors from cities and town around the Canadian and U.S. shores of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River, used the same resolution passed this December in Chicago to ask for complete disclosure of the chemicals used in a fracking process that involves injecting chemically treated water deep into layers of shale rock to free up natural gas for extraction and use as a source of energy.

 To date, Halliburton and other members of the American petroleum industry is not willing to disclose – not even to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency – what chemicals are involved, even though there is a plan now in play to discharge the chemically contaminated fracking effluent through the Niagara Falls, New York wastewater treatment plant to the Niagara River and Lake Ontario.

 “This is a really hot topic,” McMullan told Niagara At Large. “There should be full disclosure in terms of what these chemicals are.”

 Niagara-on-the-Lake Councillor Jamie King tabled a motion that was passed by that town’s council this past October, urging other municipalities to call on senior governments for a moratorium on the plans to discharge the fracking effluent to the Niagara River until possible impacts on the environment, including downstream drinking water supplies, are reviewed. So far that motion has been supported in principle by at least three Niagara municipal councils, including St. Catharines, , Thorold, Wainfleet  and Fort Erie.

 Niagara Falls, New York is being eyed by American-based petroleum companies as a possible discharge point for the chemically laced water it is already using in Pennsylvania and other states to free up natural gas from layers of shale deep underground. The contaminated water would be trucked to that city’s wastewater treatment plant which is specially equipped with system of carbon beds for filtering chemicals from the effluent it receives from Occidental, Olin and other nearby chemical manufacturing plants in the city before that effluent is discharged to the Niagara River.

 A major driver for Niagara Falls, N.Y. for considering accepting the fracking waste is that the wastewater plant has lost customers in recent decades due to a decline of industry in the city and the costs of operating it are are falling on the backs of a local population of residents that has also been dwindling. The revenue the city would receive from petroleum companies for treating the fracking waste would relieve some of the cost burden on local residents.

 McMullan said that as a mayor, he sympathizes with the challenges the city faces but it is also important to make sure that any discharge of this material to the Great Lakes does not pose hazards for the environment and for millions of people who count on the lakes and St. Lawrence River as a source of drinking water.

 Critics of fracking or what is more technically called hydraulic fracturing for extracting natural gas from below ground argue that it is impossible to assess the possible environmental risks of the practice if they can’t obtain a full list of the chemicals being used. Representatives of the petroleum industry want to keep the chemical make-up a secret from their competitors and the former U.S. Bush administration passed legislation that bent to their wishes.

 The lack of knowledge of what chemicals are mixed in the fracking water would make it difficult, if not impossible, for environmental agencies in the U.S. and Canada to test for these chemicals in the Great Lakes or to monitor for their presence in fish and other wildlife, and in drinking water supplies.

 Senior levels of government in both countries have yet to respond to growing calls by municipalities for a full and open review of plans to discharge the material to the Niagara River.

 For more information of the activities of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Initiative, visit www.glslcities.org .

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