ONTARIO, Canada (WKBW) — A large piece of steel which was stuck on the brink of Niagara Falls for years, is now gone for good.
Members of the New York Army National Guard used a helicopter to remove the 3,500-pound piece of steel, Wednesday afternoon.
It served as a bonus for many sight-seers visiting the Falls.
A strong wind storm caused the pontoon to break free from the Lake Erie ice boom, in 2019.
It has been stuck in the upper rapids ever since, but that is not the only stray pontoon on the Niagara Frontier.
There is another one from the ice boom, which washed up on a beach in Niagara-On-The-Lake, below the Canadian defense site on, Lakeshore Road. This is located on the lake Ontario shoreline.
This rusty, pontoon has been beached, for more than two years, on this beach, in Ontario, Canada.
The rogue, 3,500-pound piece of steel has been spotted by a few dog walkers and even curious hikers.
Canadian resident Karen Limardi said, "During the pandemic, a lot of the trails were kind of closed so you had to pick and choose where you wanted to go to get outdoors and get some exercise in. I found a park on Niagara-On-The-Lake."
Karen Limardi is a Buffalo native who now lives north of the border.
Lamardi explained, "I had crawled down the embankment, onto the beach itself: Mississauga Beach. I was tracking the entire length of the beach and back, and I found the pontoon. At the time, I didn't know what it was."
This pontoon was a piece of the Niagara River ice boom, which is installed on Lake Erie, every winter, according to the New York Power Authority (NYPA).
It is one of more than 250 pieces.
With all this recent talk of the rogue pontoon in the Niagara River, Limardi decided to revisit the beach with this new piece of information, which is how she got these new pictures, in March.
Limardi said, "It's just very interesting to see what they're doing now in the Niagara River, but there still is another one out there that needs retrieval."
"It's not in a place where boat can get in and out of there easily. to tow it. It's just in a tough spot," NYPA community affairs director, Lou Paonessa said.
Unfortunately, this particular piece is actually stuck in Canada, and NYPA cannot waltz into Canada and remove it without working with the Canadian authorities.
"Eventually, we will like to get it out. We got to figure out a way to do that. Working with the Ontario Power Generation, we will do that, but it's something that's got to work for them, work for us," Paonessa said.
Additionally, because there is no safety risk to humans or wildlife, it will just keep dwelling in the Lake Ontario sand.
