Newswise — Heavy rain yesterday resulted in a sewage discharge into the Niagara River near the base of the American falls from the wastewater treatment plant in Niagara Falls, N.Y. 

Clarkson University Professor of Biology Michael Twiss is available to comment on the impact of discharges like this to the Great Lakes.

"Discharges like this occur throughout the Great Lakes and are in violation of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement Protocol of 2012 and the 1909 Boundary Waters Treaty between the United States and Canada," says Twiss.

Twiss is an appointed member of both the International Joint Commission Science Advisory Board's Research Coordination Committee and the U.S. EPA Great Lakes Advisory Board’s Science & Information Subcommittee. He has studied the Great Lakes for more than 25 years and is also vice president and president-elect of the Association for Great Lakes Research (IAGLR), a scientific organization made up of researchers studying the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River system, other large lakes of the world, and their watersheds.