Swim Drink Fish Blog
Read the latest updates and news releases about community science, water monitoring, Artists for Water, and more.
Action at the King's Mill Park landfill
There's action at the King's Mill Park landfill!
Monday was the first chance we've had to take the Angus Bruce up the Humber River since it arrived in Toronto. Imagine our surprise when Mark Mattson and I rounded a bend in the river just after 6:00 and saw mounds of gravel, city trucks, and a backhoe on site.
It was almost exactly one year ago that we took our first samples from the old landfill site, which was (and still is) leaking contaminants into the Humber River. When rain falls, two things happen:
City of Toronto under investigation after watchdog exposes 'dirty secrets'
"Acutely lethal" doses of ammonia, PCBs, and PAHs are pouring into the Humber River from the King's Mill Park landfill in Toronto's west end. The closed waste disposal site - just one of seventy-seven in Toronto - is classified by Ontario's Ministry of Environment (MOE) as hazardous to human health.
Report on the King's Mill Park landfill site
Dear Mark Mattson:
This site, which is now closed and utilized as parkland, is situated on the westerly side of and adjacent to the Humber River, south of Bloor Street West. The site is bounded on the north by Old Mill Terrace and on the west by Park Lawn Cemetery. The Humber Valley Yacht Club is situated at the southerly boundary of the site.