Prospect, N.Y. – Mohawk Valley Water Authority Executive Director Pat Becher says he and other MVWA officials continue to look into what caused Saturday afternoon’s flouride [sic] leak at the agency’s water treatment plant in Prospect.

Becher told News Channel 2 on Sunday that it could be a couple of days before an exact cause is known, “What we know is that we lost several thousand gallons of liquid flouride through a valve in a holding tank.  We’re not sure yet if it was mechanical failure, some operator error, or some kind of combination.  We’ll be going back into all of our computer records and our alarm records and examine the equipment itself.  I think it’ll be another day or two before we have a real clear picture of what took place.”

Becher says it’s believed between 3,000 and 4,000 gallons of liquid flouride leaked from a huge holding tank.  He says he wants area residents to know two things, “One, the drinking water is completely safe.  It was never imperiled in any way, it wasn’t effected by this at all.   And secondly, we do carry a pretty strong liability umbrella and we will be talking to our insurance company first thing Monday morning to see what we need to do to get reimbursed.”

A cleanup crew was still on scene Sunday afternoon working to clean up the spill.

Becher estimates the cost of the lost flouride to be between $6,000 and $7,000 but the cleanup will be much more than that.