Sen. Ortt Calls for Accountability in Black Water Incident

Kelly Dudzik

August 2, 2017

DEC
Tourism

Originally published in WGRZ

NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. -- 2 On Your Side's Kelly Dudzik spoke with New York State Senator Robert Ortt on Wednesday night about how he plans on holding those responsible for the black water at the Falls accountable.

He wants to see the DEC's report when it is done to find out what the environmental impact was.
Ortt says if there were pollutants that were put in the water, that should be an offense that gets people fired.

We caught up with Ortt Wednesday evening at the Niagara County Fair to speak with him about this issue.

"What are you going to do to make sure the Water Board doesn't allow something like this to happen again?" asked Dudzik.

"The first thing we need to do is, obviously, there's an investigation ongoing. The DEC has already said they're investigating,” said Ortt. “This is another example of the Water Board thus far being totally unaccountable. Not being willing to go on camera. Not willing to give a statement to the public, who they ultimately serve. They are appointed by elected representatives, every single one of them and at the end of the day, they have to be accountable."

Ortt also spoke about how this impacts how the world sees Niagara Falls.

"You think about all the money the state has pumped into Niagara Falls, in trying to re-brand it, trying to pump up economic development, and now we have this. It's an embarrassment," says Ortt.

We also spoke with Niagara Falls City Councilmember Ken Tompkins on the phone Wednesday night. He told us he's very disappointed the Water Board didn't reach out to the city as soon as this happened Saturday. He's calling on the Board to be transparent and not to hide.

And late Wednesday, the Niagara County legislature announced it will hold a special meeting next week to consider resolutions that urge the leadership of the Niagara Falls Water Board to resign. It will also call for criminal investigations into what happened over the weekend.