Public Commons

Part of Municipal Strike 2009

July 26, 2009, 4 e-mails

Boris Steipe wrote:

I just wanted to post a brief update on what has been happening at Christie Pits this evening.

As you know, I have been alerting the Ministry of the Environment and the City for over a week regarding ongoing leachate run-off problems at Christie Pits, Moss Park and Sunnyside, to no real effect. This afternoon at around 5:00 pm. the problems at Christie Pits escalated to the point that the rink was literally overflowing. Streams of contaminated fluid escaped to the grounds on all sides of the rink as well as into a basin at the front of the rink that is draining - somewhere.

I notified this list and my contact at the Ministry of the Environment (MOE). The MOE District Manager right away sent a Senior Environmental Officer who arrived at the site around 7:00. She assessed the situation, verified the increased run-off, took charge and with a few phone-calls had a pumping truck dispatched to remove the stagnant pool of liquids from the rink (or at least what was left of it) and to suck out the liquids in the basin before the rink. I was told that the truck would arrive soon, CUPE expected to put it through a ritual 15 minute delay - but I then left to have a look at Campbell Park. When I passed the Christie Pits again at around 10:00, the truck was still pumping, flashing lights and all.

Now, before anyone gets the idea that this is an example of effective risk management or mitigation, let me point out the following: - I have been predicting this and documenting it for over a week, none of what happened this afternoon is at all surprising; - Access Toronto/Strike Command have told me they are monitoring everywhere and applying appropriate measures; - That the pump truck finally got sent was the result of my e-mail; - It is not MY job to be monitoring this site in the first place; - Christie Pits just happens to be from where I have been sending pictures - but who is looking at the other temporary dump sites? - No pools of leachate accumulate at Moss Park because it runs off into the ground right away; - Removing some of the water at Christie Pits will not stop the runoff, we will have slow discharge from soaked bags and run-off into the ground around the rink - which we had, even when the hard-top was dry.

These sites are and remain structurally unsound.

But - what I have learned is: MOE can indeed set things in motion. I hope I will see even more decisive action over the next days.

Boris

P.S. Ah, yes: Campbell Park. This is a complete fiasco. A small amount of the rainfall ran off into a basin like at Christie. I heard from MOE that that basin drains into the sanitary sewer system, not the storm sewers, so that's a bit of good news. The bad news is that there are drainage openings all around the ice rink, draining directly into the grounds. I had alerted City/MOE of that and sent a picture. That hole had a small mound of absorbent in front of it, which was overwhelmed and mostly washed away by the run-off this afternoon. There was a large, stinking puddle in the park at that spot. None of the other drainage openings had been taken care of: at several I could still see fluids trickling out, and the visual traces of recent run-off in the grass. This has all drained right into the ground by the time I was there. I'll post some images tomorrow.

Boris Steipe wrote:

Yesterday evening's deployment of a pumping truck has apparently removed only about half of the leachate at the Christie Pits site. (Images attached).

As of this morning, 10:00 am, fluids are escaping past the sorbent socks into the grounds on all sides. These effluents are entering the soil and groundwater as I type this mail. Further fluids are still trickling audibly into the basin at the front of the rink.

King City weather radar is showing an approaching storm with peak rainfall over 50mm/hr. http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/radar/index_e.html?id=WKR

As always, I can provide high-resolution images if needed.

Kind regards, Boris Steipe

b: spacer:

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M. H. wrote:

Here is the Villiers Street Dump footage courtesy of Bill Steele. Not very pretty.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EJftpR9usY

Boris Steipe 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,

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A wrote:

On 26 Jul 2009, C. G. wrote:

Councillor Mammoliti's actions are completely legal and even if he has a political agenda (which I suspect he might),

Just because something is legal doesn't mean it is

1) Right
2) Smart.

I am of the opinion that Mr Mammoliti's actions are neither.

[-On 25 Jul 2009 C. G. wrote:-]

Ward 7 York West Councillor Mammoliti has hired Emery Village, a private garbage collection company, to clean up his Ward.Residents are able to drop off their garbage at a location near Finch and WestonRoad that appears to be a parking lot (not a park!).

That sounds like entirely inappropriate behaviour as the union and the city are negotiating the contract.

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July 27, 2009, 3 e-mails

J. H. wrote:

Here's an interesting and surprisingly engaging Mike Moore-style documentary exposing the failures of the Toronto dumps to contain toxins. If you live in Toronto you need to see this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EJftpR9usY

If you want to send this to your list use Bcc, seriously.

http://bccplease.com/

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J. F. wrote:

Some media has already mentioned that we will be having a Press Conference on Thursday, July 30 at 5:45PM at Moss Park, so it's Important that we follow through, as we will not only be representing our own parks and dump sites, but all 19.

The main and most Important objective to this Press Conference is to DEMAND some assurance from the City and the Provincial government that they will not only clean our parks, arena and wherever else they dumped the garbage, but also to take care of any health problem that my occur to the residents, now and the future.

We must also make sure to name names, like Mayor Miller, Premier Mcgunity and both Ministers, Environment and Health. I will try to get a flyer out to you by Wednesday AM, I have asked Andrew to help me put something together.

I will also email Boris to see if he can make it to the press conference. I'm also suggestion that we have only one representative from each park speak to media, we can discuss through email who would like to speak.

H. S. wrote:

Happy Tuesday FCPP,

J. from Friends of Campbell Park and D. from Moss Park are working to create a press conference to ensure the concerns that have arisen due to parks becoming dumps are not lost in the euphoria that is occuring as the TOStrike apparently reaches its end.

They are aiming for Thursday late afternoon, and it will be held at Moss Park.

If you want to help out, please contact J. F. directly.

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July 30, 2009+], 4 e-mail

M. G. wrote:

Now that the strike is coming to an end I would like to invite everyone to the park to discuss what's next for Friends of Christie Pits Park.

I am so impressed with everyone who calls themselves a Friend. You have shown the City that we are a unified group who share a real concern about our community. I also feel that of all things, garbage, has brought our community together (and I thought pizza was all we needed).

Please join me to meet and greet all the great people in our community. Please bring your kids and a picnic blanket and enjoy the park.

Meet and Greet Wednesday July 29th Christie Pits Park Pavillion 7p.m. Snacks to be provided (please bring your own drink)

Agenda items to include; How to keep parks off the list for future strikes, Summer Picnic Party Sunday August 16th, AGM September.

See you in the park,

M. G. wrote:

I will be at the press conference at 5:45pm today (Thursday) to support Friends of Moss Park and Friends of Campbell Park.

I hope some of you will be available to come down to Moss Park to assure the clean up of all temporary dump sites will be done quickly and efficiently.

Let's get our parks back before the summer is completely ruined.

L. Y. wrote:

I live in Leaside, but I've been very interested and grateful for the good work that many in the Christie Pits, Moss Park and Campbell Park area have been doing.

I really have to wonder whether the strike ended because the city and unions did not want to bother defending themselves against the lawsuit which another group member linked to, below. The lawsuit would have required city and union lawyers to show up in Ontario Superior Court tomorrow. I am assuming that city and union lawyers will report to the court that they are complying with the demand of the suit to restore city services tomorrow and thus there is no basis starting, oh how conveniently, tomorrow, for a lawsuit.

I had sent an earlier email asking whether anyone is interested in petitioning the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Ontario ombudsman Andre Marin to review the city's decisions and whether they contravene our charter rights, as well as holding speakers forums to keep the issue of empowering citizens especially in cases of municipal strikes at the forefront running up to the next municipal, provincial and federal elections. But I didn't send the message properly, so I throw that question out there now. My husband is law prof Alan Young, and he's carried on a few constitutional challenges over the years. Which has taught me that lawsuits are expensive and no fun, and it's better to invigorate the democratic process and bug the right politicians in the right way.

L. Y.

P.S. I also wanted to point out a study that the city seems to ignore entitled “The role of airborne fungal spores from garbage dumps in respiratory diseases”. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17451304 I really can't believe that the city, for a routine labour disruptions, has put pregnant women at higher risk of swine flu then exposed women of childbearing age to airborne pollutants from rotting garbage which may make respiratory illnesses worse. Had the garbage strike gone on or if Friends of Christie Pits is interested in keeping the issue alive till the next election, I'm sure it would be interesting for the Centre for Disease Control, which the Canadian gov't quotes from time to time, to comment on what dying bacteria does for lungs of asthmatics and those with respiratory illnesses. CDC material on asthma here though it doesn't mention garbage. http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/

M. G. wrote:

Thank you to everyone who came to the meeting on Wednesday night. It was short notice and only a few members were able to come.

It was very clear most people are concerned about two main things 1) ensure the safe and efficient clean up of the temporary dump site and 2) ensuring this never happens again to any park in the future.

FCPP would like to balance some of the social activism with resuming some of our community building activities including picnics in the park and pizza nights.

I would personally like to thank our members for their strong dedication to supporting our park and community. I would like to thank Boris Steipe for his ongoing efforts to remove the garbage from the park. I would also like to thank Himy Syed for his non-stop online postings and buzz.

The Friends of Christie Pits Park have made quite a name for ourselves and I would like to continue to build on our good name. In September we will be having our AGM and would love to include more members to our Steering Committee. Please consider joining our group and building to our already fantastic community.

Hope to see you in the park soon.....with all of the services running....

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