Public Commons

Part of Municipal Strike 2009

July 24, 2009, 8 emails

Boris Steipe wrote:

Good morning, Thank you for your detailed response, I appreciate the time you

took to prepare it.

According to your response and the evidence I have sent you, it

appears that the City is currently in violation of your requirements regarding temporary garbage dump sites. The sites I have pointed out are structurally unsound to be used in this way and the technical measures applied by the city appear to have been totally inadequate.

These are structural problems and it is not apparent that there can be a simple technical remedy.

I therefore believe it is timely to propose that the following three measures be undertaken immediately, as this is an ongoing problem due to the forecast of more rain over the next days:

1) Withdrawal of the approvals given to the City of Toronto by the

Ontario Ministry of the Environment to operate the sites at

Christie Pits Park, Moss Park and Sunnyside Park as temporary dump- sites.

2) Requirement to remove all garbage and contaminated effluents

from the temporary sites for which I have documented the ongoing run-off problems to sites where it can be handled and stored without hazards to health and environment (e.g. the City's transfer stations).

3) Reassessment of all other sites regarding their environmental suitability.

In order to support this, I will register a formal complaint against the City of Toronto with you. I will coordinate with you in case such a complaint should not be directed to you or in case there are formal requirements to be adhered to.

At the same time I will inform the City; I will routinely CC you on correspondence.

I am commenting on on your response, point by point below.

On 23-Jul-09, at 5:05 PM, Adams, Rod (ENE) wrote:

Good afternoon.

Thank you for your e-mails dated July 17, 2009, and July 21, 2009, concerning the suitability of the City of Toronto's temporary drop-off sites, and the actions that are being taken once the Ministry of the Environment is alerted of potential problems.

• According to your assistant Irena you have also received my update from July 22. I assume your response reflects this information as well. Should that not be the case, I will be happy to resend.

The ministry approved the city selected temporary waste drop off sites that are on city owned properties and are in locations that are convenient and accessible for public use during the City of Toronto labour dispute.

• I understand. None of these criteria relate to environmental or health concerns.

The approval requires that the temporary sites are fenced and that all storm sewer catch basins are covered and isolated to ensure no contaminated runoff enters any catch basins leading to a storm sewer system.

• In my mails dated July 17, 21 and 22, I have provided you with photographic evidence from all locations that I have written to you about, which demonstrates that the storm sewers have not been effectively isolated and we must expect significant runoff to have entered the catch basins and storm sewer system.

• Such was also evident in footage captured by a CBC news team yesterday afternoon and broadcast an the 6:00 pm news.

The ministry is periodically checking on the operation of the temporary waste drop off sites to ensure compliance with the Certificate of Approval.

• I am glad to hear that. However these checks have not identified the very obvious deficiencies I have pointed out to you.

If any issues are identified by ministry staff or reported to the ministry by the public, the ministry ensures that the city takes appropriate corrective actions.

• I would be very interested to learn

- which issues have been identified,

- when,

- and what activities by the City were taken...

... at Christie Pits, Sunnyside, and Moss Park.

• I would appreciate if you could let me know what I have to do to obtain this information.

The city has taken prompt actions to address any issues that have been reported to them by the ministry.

Upon receipt of your e-mail dated July 17, 2009, I contacted the City of Toronto and advised them of your concerns. The city promptly responded and actions were taken at each of these sites.

At Christie Pits, the city has placed booms around the outside of the perimeter of the rink. On the day the city checked the site the concrete outside the rink was dry and did not show any signs of

liquid leaving the site. The ministry will continue to follow-up with the city on the area identified in the pictures you provided.

• As you know since I have sent you the evidence, at Christie Pits no actions were undertaken and at Sunnyside and Moss park the actions

• were predicatbaly ineffective and not appropriate. Could you clarify for me: did the Ministry not request appropriate action, or did the City not comply? To further clarify, did the fact that the sorbent socks were dry on the day they were inspected satisfy you that the sorbent socks would be adequate protection for the rains that have been correctly forecast by the Metereological Office?

• As you know, polypropylene hazmat sorbent socks of the type laid out by the city (3" diameter) have a capacity of about 4L of liquid per L of sock length. This means these socks are fully saturated after draining 1mm of rainfall from an area of 4sqm, or 8sqm if they are doubled as in parts of Christie Pits. An ice rink has an area of 1,586 sqm, a circumference of 174 m. This means: even if the sorbent socks would encircle the whole of the rink (they do not) and even if escaping leachate would not be concentrated in a few areas (which it is) the sorbent socks would be completely saturated with fluids after absorbing liquid from less than 1 (one) mm of precipitation.

• This means: contaminated fluids have escaped in significant volumes on July 11 (7.4 mm of rainfall), July 21. (4.6 mm of rainfall), July 22 (2.4 mm of rainfall); July 23 (31.4 mm).

• The capacity of the socks has been exceeded almost 40-fold over the last three days, even under conservative assumptions.

• At 2:30 pm today the audible sound of significant amounts of leachate trickling from the overflowing rink into the sewer system was recorded by a CBC camerateam. This appears not to be just seepage but yesterday afternoon the pool of leachate was literally overflowing.

• Contaminated fluids are currently leaking out from Christie Pits Park and will do so over the next days.

• Let me note at this point that the deployment of a pumping truck may ameliorate the situation in parts; the problems are however structural and leakage has been observed also on days when the hard- top was substantially dry. Pumping off some of the fluids will cannot eliminate leakage.

At Sunnyside Park, the catch basins have been securely covered and absorbent socks have placed around the catch basin to absorb any liquid runoff in the drop-off area. As well, absorbent material was placed in any pooled area.

• I am not sure why you write this, since I have sent you the photographic evidence that these measures were completely ineffective. Maybe there is a misunderstanding - please refer to my image "Sunnyside_July21a.jpg" which shows that no significant retention was achieved.

At Moss Park, the garbage has been placed on tarps and wood chips, and absorbent material was placed in the pooled areas. No garbage is being placed directly on the grass. However, any grassed area that may become inadvertently affected by liquid from the piles will be removed and replaced once the labour dispute has been resolved.

• Again - I wonder if there was a misunderstanding: my images "MossPark_July-16a.jpg" and "MossPark_July-16b.jpg" show that this absorbent material was already saturated after less than one day of contact with the leaking bags on a dry day.

The temporary waste drop off site in the Campbell Arena has had booms placed around the perimeter of inside of the boards in the rink.

This should prevent runoff from the site.

• Please refer to my calculated estimates, above.

• Should you have any additional concerns, please give me a call at

Boris Steipe wrote:

Dear Access Toronto,

This is regarding the ongoing problems with run-off of contaminated fluids from Christie Pits, Moss Park and Sunnyside that I have documented in e-mails to you dated July 17, 21 and 22.

As I have ascertained yesterday afternoon at Christie Pits, accompanied by a CBC camerateam, following yesterday's rainfalls of 31mm the site was overflowing and we must now expect that the surrounding ground and the storm sewer system has been contaminated. This is a predictable consequence of the problems I had alerted you of.

Yesterday evening, I have been informed by Rod Adams, the District Manager of the Ontario Ministry of the Environment that:

The approval [of the temporary dump sites] requires that the temporary sites are fenced and that all storm sewer catch basins are covered and isolated to ensure no contaminated runoff enters any catch basins leading to a storm sewer system.

On the face of the evidence I had submitted to you, and witnessed observations from yesterday, no effective isolation of the storm sewer system has been achieved. Moreover, these are structural problems that cannot be addressed with sorbent booms or rubber mats.

I have proposed that the Ministry undertake the following three measures immediately, as this is an ongoing problem due to the forecast of more rain over the next days:

1) Withdrawal of the approvals given to the City of Toronto by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment to operate the sites at Christie Pits Park, Moss Park and Sunnyside Park as temporary dump-sites.

2) Requirement to remove all garbage and contaminated effluents from the temporary sites for which I have documented the ongoing run-off problems to sites where it can be handled and stored without hazards to health and environment (e.g. the City's transfer stations).

3) Reassessment of all other sites regarding their environmental suitability.

In order to support this, I am registering a formal complaint against the City of Toronto with the Ministry.

I am also registering a formal complaint in this matter with the City itself.

Let me propose that in addition to removing the garbage to sites were it can be safely and professionally handled, the City should undertake definitive measures to ensure that Citizen's access to the transfer station sites can proceed in an unhindered fashion, unimpeded by picket lines.

I have CC'd you on my correspondence with the Ministry, please refer to this mail for further details regarding the capacity of sorbent socks and regarding the fact that yesterday afternoon we have witnessed audible evidence of the Christie Pits Dump draining into the storm sewer system.

Please feel free to contact me at any time should further evidence or clarification be helpful.

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Z. wrote:

I wonder if members of the media do not want to follow this story because they live in the areas without temporary dumps and don't want that to change.

A. K. wrote:

Thanks for sending M. Not surprising information though great to have this info leaked to us. Thanks to whomever sent that email as it has lifted by spirits to know that we are not the silent, non-voting demographic they thought we were.

Shall we gather people together for a 2nd attempt at a Bloor Street and Park clean up on Saturday? Perhaps10am, meeting outside Banjara? The last clean up effort was during a pretty big thunderstorm!

Please let me know who is interested so we can organize and coordinate.

M. C. wrote:

are we still on for garbage pickup on Bloor tomorrow morning? I can do an hour then i have to leave for west end.

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H. S wrote:

http://www.Torontopedia.ca/MEDIA_ADVISORY:_Giving_Voice_To_The_Voiceless

MEDIA ADVISORY: Campbell Park and Christie Pits area residents to join Friends of Moss Park today at 5 pm in "Naming" next Temporary Dump Site; Giving Voice to the Voiceless

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: TORONTO Friday July 24, 2009 10 a.m.

"Giving Voice to the Voiceless - Parks R 4 People"

Moss Park Temporary Dump Site, Friday July 24 2009, 5 p.m.

Background:

The City of Toronto has repeatedly stated criteria in selecting locations for temporary dump sites in Toronto parks as having enclosed, paved surfaces, such as found in outdoor ice rinks.

Moss Park fails this criteria.

Christie Pits area resident and University of Toronto Professor, Dr. Boris Steipe, states that "Every 1 (one) mm of precipitation equals one Liter of water per square meter. A regulation basketball court is about 450 square meters, on this area 1mm of precipitation deposits a volume of water that fills 1.5 bathtubs. Yesterday's rains were 31mm, that is more than 45 bathtubs of water between each pair of hoops. This water has picked up all the filth we saw leaking out of the bags. Where is all that water now? 45 bathtubs for each basketball field? Is it it safely tucked away in the mulch/granulate/sorbent socks?"

Jack Fava representing Friends of Campbell Park will be bringing children from the Dupont and Landsdowne neighbourhood to Moss Park this afternoon. He is asking, "Why aren't the children being heard?"

Action:

Today, shortly after 5 p.m., the Friends of Moss Park will be "Naming" the next temporary dump site.

Since the dump has opened, numerous out of area residents have been driving their garbage here, unaware that the Villiers Street temporary dump site is but a five minute drive from Moss Park. Friends of Moss Park have been communicating this information by handing out maps to the Villiers site to drivers upon exit of the site. Many drivers have expressed appreciation for this information and stated that next time they will drive their garbage there.

It is having a positive effect as over the past few days, there has been a reduction in numbers of garbage drop offs at Moss Park. Friends of Moss Park will have further comment about these positive results later this afternoon.

It is confirmed that the current dump site perimeter will be expanded onto the grass soccer field by four fence lengths on Monday July 27, 2009.

Friends of Moss Park will be providing practical, immediate, and reasonable alternative to this expansion.

Conclusion:

A resident of the shelter across from Moss Park arena, speaking on behalf of his fellow shelter residents stated yesterday about the basketball court and soccer field being taken over by garbage, "I may be homeless, but I still enjoy sports. We can't play sports no more [sic]."

Friends of Moss Park will be reminding fellow Torontonians as well as Toronto's decision makers that the point is not how many people appear at Moss Park this afternoon, the point is how many people did not appear, because Moss Park has no voice.

- 30 -

http://Torontopedia.ca/FriendsOfMossPark

http://Torontopedia.ca/MEDIA_ADVISORY:_Giving_Voice_To_The_Voiceless

Boris Steipe wrote:

Right after this noon's rainshower the pesticide contractor waded into the rink to spray both insecticide & disinfectant.

I have posted a video on YouTube that shows the current situation; listen to the sound of contaminated run-off presumably entering the storm-sewers and the lake.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3U2JCj-6u6w

No responses so far from the City regarding the run-off situation. This afternoon I have submitted a formal complaint with the Ministry of the Environment and with the City of Toronto.

In case you're interested, the text is attached below.

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The City of Toronto - Personal Delivery -

CC. The Ontario Ministry of the Environmen Toronto, July 24. 2009

Run-off of contaminated fluids from temporary garbage dump sites operated by the City of Toronto

Wheras I have been informed by the Ministry of the Environment that effective isolation of storm drainage systems is a condition for the operation of temporary dump sites by the City of Toronto, and

Whereas I have documented on several occasions the inadequacy of the measures taken to prevent ground contamination and run-off into storm sewers, and I have provided such evidence in e-mails to the City and the Ministry, dated July 17., 21. and 22. of this year, the receipt of which was acknowledged, and

Whereas personal witnessed observation yesterday, July 23., has confirmed that despite my alerts and warnings contamination of ground and sewer systems through run-off has occured at Christie Pits Park,

I am herewith registering the

COMPLAINT

that the City appears to be in breach of the conditions under which the operation of temporary dump sites was permitted.

Moreover I am of the reasoned opinion that preventive measures including (i) addition of more sorbent socks, (ii) revision of sewer covers and (iii) partial removal of fluids through pumping trucks are inadequate to resolve these problems as these sites are structurally unsound; I have provided my reasoning to both the City and the Ministry in an e-mail from this morning.

I request to be kept informed of the actions that are being undertaken.

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D. M. wrote:

Hello everyone,

1. My source from Solid Waste told me:

CUPE 416 took photos of Moss Park dump this morning– told staff they plan to divert from Commissioner’s transfer station and Villiers back to Moss Park, and want to fill Moss Park as fast as they can.

We will drive to Villiers to see if this is true. 2. Because of the heavy rain, the garbage piles aren’t as high – staff are now able to load more garbage on the existing piles. (Thay are piling new garbage on the piles in the basketball court).

While I was there this morning (before 9am)

CUPE 79 picketers at parking lot entrance, and on Queen Street. They were not stopping cars.

There was a steady stream of cars dropping garbage off at both spots.

I will report back with a Villiers update, before our rally later today.

Thursday, we were 4 strong, and 2 vehicles chose to turn around and go to Villiers.

Take good care, and hope to see many of you at 5!

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!!!!!! July 25, 2009, 3 e-mail

!!!!!!Boris Steipe After the last rain shower, right now 17:30 pm on Saturday July 25. the rink is literally overflowing. Water is pushed over the threshold at the southern gate, into the storm sewers. Swaths of oily liquid are being discharged. As well, liquid is escaping at multiple points around the perimeter.

The sorbent socks have been saturated for days and are holding back nothing. The covered storm sewer grilles on the west and north sides are likewise holding nothing back.

I have some HD footage ...

Boris PS. Of course, regarding run-off, Christie Pits is actually one of the better controlled sites. Moss park doesn't have any barrier to speak of, Sunnyside's barriers have been ineffective from the beginning... etc.)

!!!!!!G. R. wrote: Hi all, Did anyone else catch the news tidbit the other night. Miller said the city couldn't remove the trash because it is not its responsibility!

The garbage legally belongs to Republic Services Inc., which holds the contract to haul Toronto's trash.

The statement is in the text at the bottom on the following site: http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20090722/trash_protest_090722/20090722/?site_codename=Toronto

This keeps getting stranger and stranger:

1. The City in its wisdom decides to put garbage in ice rinks rather than require waste to be brought to transfer stations.

2. The City does not enforce the double-bag policy, the garbage leaks and the ice-rink overflow and become a breeding ground for disease and toxic effluent.

3. The City has a permit from the Province to have a temporary dump as long as they meet the conditions - most important that they spray regularly and that run-off is contained.

4. The Province does not actually enforce the conditions of the permit, it is up to the City to enforce the conditions of its own permit.

5. The City does not make the decision when and how much pesticide to spray, that is private contractor Orkin's decision. Orkin is going gangbusters with the pesticide. They are probably paid by the litre.

6. Even when presented with evidence that there is toxic run-off the Province nor the City will do anything. The province and the city refuse to test the run-off because they are scared to find out what is in it.

7. We have a Medical Officer of Health who says that dumps of garbage in ice rinks which are sprayed daily with more poisons are safe for children.

8. Now we find out that the garbage, once it is deposited at these sites no longer is city property, but belongs to Republic Services Inc. to be sprayed by private contractor Orkin.

Conclusion: We have Republic Services' garbage being sprayed by Orkin in our ice-rink, but it is our City government which has arranged for it to be there, and the Province nor the Medical Officer of Health think it is the least bit of a problem.

I feel like I have entered the Mike Harris twilight zone.

!!!!!!M. A. wrote:

Greetings to all. I am a Toronto resident with kids at a school near Christie Pits. I am following this issue and Friends of Christie Pits postings while on family holiday now in Jordan. I am saddened and perplexed to hear that the issue is becoming even more complicated.

First, can we check the validity of the statement that the garbage now 'legally belongs to Republic Services." If this is so, is there an action we can take with the company?

Secondly, is there a provincial medical officer of health or equivalent that we can approach on the issue - if there are no other bodies apparently willing to take accountability?

Thirdly, in all the efforts to coordinate with other communities organizing around their temp. dump sites, are there resources/ people with expertise who we can work with to forward the issue of the trash removal?

Very interested to hear any ideas and response on these. Thank you,