Oversion’s Weblog

Having just a bit of trouble getting any kind of practical response to a basic issue of reporting what appears to be toxic spill up in Downsview near work, or gathering much information myself. Delay renders it moot, and essentially means that anyone can flush anything through the natural water system of greater Toronto. Why pay for toxic waste disposal if there’s no ramification at all to just dumping out back? Plastic bags are a problem, other visible handheld waste, but industrial pollutants have to matter as well. Perhaps unseen and without getting back to me, they are looking into it, immediately east and Down, across the street from 4400 Dufferin. But it sure feels like it’s on some long list of spills to look into, and by the time they do, the tests will amount to random tests of years of dumping and spills. Thats always a valid excercize. But I’ve been watching this waterbody for some years now as it is beautiful and to the immediate right of the 4400 Dufferin bus stop that I use most weekday mornings, and the beige oily scum which plunged into the water on or the night before June 11 2009 was not in evidence previous to that. As I noted then, the brook that winds through the ravinelands passes under Dufferin right there. Water levels seem to me to have been up the last few years, and quite a burst of wildlife now precedes the continued veering of that brook over to the Finch Reservoir. Ive watched animals walk down to sip the water right where the beige oily scum is presently pooling. Their lives aren’t easy, being hit by the mad screaming traffic up on Dufferin, facing extreme heat and cold, shortage of food at times, the threat of disease. But suddenly having their water source poisined is rather hopeless, and extends to everything. 

In the morning I’ll take a jar in my backpack and collect a sample, bag it and put it in the fridge and phone some labs. I’m sure spills and dumping are fairly common. There’s every evidence for instance that private contractors are paid to dispose of numerous forms of junk and then just take it in the pickup truck around at night or weekends looking for any unviewed place to heave it out and drive away. Very clever! But I also think many businesses see through this and simply dump it out back themselves. Seeing this spill occur seemingly over night June 10,11, then recur anew again this morning, almost a week later, makes one anticipate watching the spill disappear as it moves down stream and enters Finch Reservoir, and next week, another lively burst of beige oily scum reappear. This photo from last week probably shows it a more intense juncture.

Does it look worth looking into? Perhaps they’re just not telling me they’ve looked or are looking into it. Perhaps many have reported it. Here in rapid selected thumbnail form some of many photos I’ve taken of this same idyllic scene in recent years.  

thats where it comes in from, the other side of dufferin from that