Comment on infrastructure:…

Comment on infrastructure:

At Swim Drink Fish, our mission is to ensure access to swimmable, drinkable, and fishable waters for everyone. To achieve this, we’ve been advocating for addressing pollution concerns and restoring degraded waterways since 2001. We’ve had considerable success in places like Kingston, Ontario, now famous for the swimming available at its Gord Downie Pier and at Bluffer’s Beach in Toronto. In doing so, we’ve learned that by working inclusively with different stakeholders, we can develop sustainable solutions that enhance water quality and safeguard public health, recreation, and ecosystem health for years to come.

Now, with the proposed interim combined sewer overflows to be constructed at 955 Lake Shore Boulevard West for an estimated 60 million of public money, it is critical that an honest, informed and reasonable conversation occurs regarding the city’s plans for sewage management and monitoring. While Swim Drink Fish supports any efforts to invest in sewage management, we are writing to express our concern regarding the overall management and data transparency regarding sewage in Toronto. Without transparent data, the public will have no way of monitoring or evaluating the efficacy of this policy and will be unable to quantify its potentially negative impacts on the environment.

Western Beaches:
The proposed pipe change has the potential to affect Toronto’s Western Beaches which, if managed properly, would give city dwellers the opportunity to step away from the hustle and bustle of the city and connect with nature. Currently however, visitors to the Western Beaches during summer months are frequently met with “no swimming” signs or beach closures due to poor water quality. In addition to ruining a day of summer fun, these signs serve as an important reminder of a much larger issue: Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs).

People in Toronto don’t often take the time to consider their city's infrastructure, let alone the web of CSO pipes that remain hidden beneath our homes, streets, offices and roads. These systems, designed to manage storm and wastewater, have a direct impact on the water quality in Lake Ontario and operate largely out of sight and out of mind.

On October 9th, 2024, the Toronto Star brought this issue to the forefront with an article that sparked debate around the implications of closing down a CSO in the Western Channel and what exactly that means when it comes to water quality.

When conversations like this become more mainstream, it raises questions about the issues and why certain actions are being taken while others are not. People should be asking why certain infrastructure changes are being invested in while others have remained untouched for decades. We cannot undervalue the power of a community voice.

At Swim Drink Fish, we ensure transparency with all our open source data. It’s time that we have an informed, honest, and clear conversation on water quality, sewage transparency, and swimming access in the West End. This is why we hope to encourage a conversation that involves all stakeholders and shines a light on water quality issues and keeps the public engaged. Without this engagement, we can’t hold decision-makers accountable when it comes to protecting and prioritizing the health of Lake Ontario.

This problem isn’t specific to the West End, as sewage transparency is an issue throughout the whole city. Approximately 23% of the City of Toronto is currently built on a combined sewage system, resulting in 94 sewer outfalls that often discharge untreated sewage and stormwater into the lake, posing health risks to those who choose to enter the water.

Having precise and timely overflow data that identifies areas where pollution is not impacting the shoreline provides the opportunity to increase access to the waterfront and help people feel more comfortable with using the lake recreationally. The timeliness of this data is important because water quality is constantly changing. In addition to helping recreators make more informed decisions, this data would help bridge the information gap between the City of Toronto and the Province of Ontario, as well as politicians, ENGOs, and community members advocating for critical infrastructure upgrades.

For the past 6 years, we have been calling for the City of Toronto to implement a Real-Time Monitoring (RTM) system of reporting. This by no means fixes the core issue: the combined sewage system. However, it provides community members with relevant and timely information about the health of their local water bodies and gives them the opportunity to make informed decisions about their own health and well-being. Other regions have seen success with similar systems, including the City of Kingston which began providing public alerts in 2013 for when sewage is overflowing into the lake as an effort to keep people safe.

Why The Western Beaches?

Recent efforts to improve water quality by the City of Toronto have primarily been focused in the East End. These investments have been successful and have qualified all the other public beaches in Toronto to become Blue Flag certified, a prestigious environmental award that indicates exceptional practices for beaches and marinas globally. All while the West End beaches have some of the poorest water quality in Toronto with Sunnyside and Marilyn Bell Park only being open for about 60% of the summer due to high levels of bacteria, making it unsafe for swimming. Despite these challenges, these West End beaches are a hotspot for open water swimming, rowing clubs, kayaking, and more.

Considering this is one of the few places to recreate in Toronto’s West End, it’s clear that action needs to be taken to protect the health and safety of recreationists. The City of Toronto re-opening the conversation around the Western Beaches Public Realm Plan is an opportunity to bring this issue to the forefront. The plan updates the City’s initial 2009 Western Waterfront Master Plan with a revitalized vision for the Western Shoreline. This provides an unprecedented opportunity to advocate for change in the West End.

The changes to the Western Beaches will affect everyone. While we support the infrastructure investment to move a CSO pipeline, we believe that their must be investment made in an effective RTM programming for CSO. Water quality in the area must be addressed and data transparency is an essential first step in the process. Swim Drink Fish is eager to work with municipal and provincial governments to achieve our mutual goals of making Lake Ontario a place for community members to Swim, Drink, and Fish risk free.