Canadian politician getting involved with New York N.F. waterboard crisis

"I want to make sure people understand that we can't dump raw sewage in our waterways," said Wayne Gates, a member of the Provincial Parliament in Ontario.

There has already been over 4 million gallons of untreated sewage dumped into the Niagara River by the Niagara Falls, New York, Water Board in the past few weeks.

Now, Gates is calling for both the U.S. and Canada to work together to come up with a solution.

"It's not like okay they are just dumping on their side of the river. It flows into the Canadian side."

Gates wrote a letter to the Environment Minister of Ontario calling for the Canadian government to push the Niagara Falls Water Board to find a faster solution to this problem.

"This is a crisis that has to be addressed, today, not six months down the year, year and a half, two years down the road," he told 7 Eyewitness News.

A spokesperson for the N.F. Water Board said it's aware of the letter and plans to invest $27 million in "near term upgrades." It will also work towards updating its current filtration method to a more modern approach.

It isn't clear how soon these changes will take place, though. Many of the discharges happen after heavy rains when the system is over-flowing. With thunderstorms in the 7 First Alert forecast tonight, it's likely more sewage will be dumped into the river before a solution is found.

Alexa Magnus, a tourist from Whitby, Ontario, said she hopes these fixes come as soon as possible.

"I feel like this is a problem that needs to be fixed right away." 

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