Water by base of Niagara Falls turns black

Associated Press

The water near the base of Niagara Falls turned an alarming shade of black before tourists’ eyes following a foul-smelling discharge from a wastewater treatment plant.

The water board for the city of Niagara Falls, New York, said Saturday’s discharge was part of routine maintenance of one of its basins.

Video taken from a helicopter showed black-colored water along the Niagara River’s U.S. shoreline below the falls that border the country and Canada. The inky water enveloped the dock for the popular Maid of the Mist tour boats.

At first, it looked like a shadow to Pat Proctor, who spotted the expanding mass from a Rainbow Air Inc. helicopter Saturday. He soon realized that wasn’t the case.

“The first thing that came to my mind was, ‘Dear God, please don’t be an oil leak,”’ Proctor, a vice president for the company that flies tourists over the falls, said Monday. His video and photos of the peculiar sight have been widely shared online and through social media.

The Niagara Falls Water Board apologized for alarming residents and tourists.

A Maid of the Mist spokesman said Monday its operations were not impacted.

An investigation by the state Department of Environmental Conservation was continuing Monday.