7. Increasing Swimmability of Urban Waterfronts
Our mission at Swim Drink Fish is to connect people to water, and one of the most direct ways to do that is to increase the accessibility of our urban waterfronts. This can mean a lot of different things, and the way we approach water accessibility depends on the community and geography of the area we are working in.
Gord Edgar Downie Pier
Gord Edgar Downie Pier, Kingston, ON
One example of achieving this goal is the Gord Edgar Downie Pier in Kingston, ON. Swim Drink Fish has been active in the Kingston community since we started. For a long time, the city dealt with poor water quality due to sewage pollution, and the community itself didn’t view their shoreline as swimmable. Through advocacy work from Swim Drink Fish and the support of the community and the City of Kingston, efforts were made to mitigate the pollution issues to the point where water quality was greatly improved. This improvement fueled hope for a shoreline that encouraged people to swim and appreciate the natural beauty of Lake Ontario and eventually led to the creation of the Gord Edgar Downie Pier. The pier was the first deep-water swimming pier in Canada and is still a popular spot to take a swim in Kingston.
Scarborough Bluffs Investigation
Bluffers Beach, ON
Another example of us working towards this goal is our work at Bluffers Beach in Toronto, ON. In the 90’s to early 2000, Bluffers Beach was always closed due to poor water quality. We conducted an investigation at the beach to determine why this was the case and started sampling all the streams or creeks that discharged onto the beach. We worked alongside an expert in environmental investigations and brought our assessment to the City of Toronto to identify some streams that were highly contaminated that were outletting into the swimming area of the beach. In 2006-2007, the city acted on our recommendation and conducted major restoration work through the development of a wetland that absorbed the discharges that were contaminating the beach. The water quality at Bluffers Beach dramatically improved, and it is still, to the day, one of the cleanest beaches in Toronto.
Advocacy and Awareness
Through both of these examples, Swim Drink Fish identified water quality issues and sources of those that were often overlooked or unknown, and by providing recommendations and awareness of these issues to the community, we were able to create positive change that re-connected the people with the water. We continue to make recommendations in all the communities we work in to achieve cleaner water and make our shorelines more swimmable. Check out our current work in the Western Beaches area of Toronto, and sign our letter of support to provide real-time monitoring of the combined sewer outflows in that area.
