I was holding my breath expecting another slew of denials and 'sunny ways', perhaps even getting banned for a week again...the press has been very remiss on this issue, and many are oblivious to the history of land use there. That might have to change. Perhaps the press and plebs need to be nudged? I'm getting a bit old for that, but I still have a temper. And a few connections left in the media.
44 writes:
This is crucial, as a recurring theme in these instances is often involved agencies *using* their ignorance of unpleasant details to gloss over the issue. (See no evil, etc). I even wonder if there are departments at City Hall trying to get the attention of executive on this, to no avail. It certainly wouldn't be the first time, no need to list even the recent events of that happening. (Judson Street ring a bell?)
44 makes an excellent case of what's being done, and what continues to need be done, and the timeline to do it. And that's just with what's known. We can be assured that there's going to be some nasty surprises, and not just soil.
Something I veered from, and 44 alluded to it, is the *static* contaminants buried, in stasis, albeit in some (many?) cases, inevitably leaching, but Coles raises the point as 44 continues, of ongoing upstream sourcing of pollution. The City itself alludes to these. What's the point of putting on clean socks if you're going to continue stomping through the mud?
Fish and birds have returned to the Don (albeit with caveats), I itemized that earlier in this forum, but the Don continues to be a flowing cesspool. I see it every time I cycle down the Don cycle path, or go past the Keating on my way to the studio on Polson St. There's no way to allow a dog, let alone a child, in that water.
The last major effort to cleanse the *topsoil* was some twenty years ago, basically by cooking out the volatile petro vapours. What remained was still highly contaminated, just not as volatile. And the process of heat treatment killed any valuable microbes that would have digested much of the petro waste over time.
Goldie's pic speaks volumes. What it doesn't show is the *intentional* burying of waste in recent years (as recently as fifteen years ago), albeit illegally, by a disposal company. They were prosecuted, I knew some of those involved in passing (mostly at the restaurants down there, I won't name the company unless I can quote a legal reference). The charges and convictions were criminal.
And the press has gone silent on it since.
The mouth of the Don must be re-aligned, but I'm astounded how some are so ready to talk about building their shiny wondrous bling without even addressing the open sewers running adjacent, and the contaminants dumped there for a century, intentionally or otherwise.
Would you build a house on land that hasn't been assayed first? Then why should the Waterfront be doing it? Again, the Don must be realigned, but without holding coffer dams and ponds, exactly what Coles discusses will happen. And for how long is another very real question to answer. One only has to look at how The Beaches are fed from the Bluffs (and the deposition is now slowing markedly as erosion is stymied along the Bluffs), guess what's going to happen with sediment plumes from the Don once digging begins.
Is it old fashioned still to state: "First things first"? It's almost too long for a Tweet.
