[All] Etobicoke Spill photos & videos

Sat May 16 23:36:11 EDT 2015

Hi folks
I saw the storm discharge area. Locals told me how they eye witnessed the thick tar like oil on Wednesday May 13th.  It was thick and heavy. The way the area is designed, this pool actually has a depth of around 5ft at this spot. The creek then meanders to shallow rocky areas for a ways until it gets to the mouth of the river where it gets a little deeper. It's the perfect creek for a spill like this because contaminates are easily isolated to the point of entry area and the place is boom friendly with shallow water depth and narrowness of the creek. It's smart urban design or dumb luck. Not sure which but the spill stayed in place mainly. 
I saw clean up crews in the water with hip waders along the water's edge removing debris. I watched as they pulled out a large piece of wood from the bottom of the creek. It was pitch black. That showed me without a doubt whatever was here, sank and covered the bottom with this tar like solvent. I got photos of that wood.
There was still some of the black stuff coming in from the storm drain but it was in smaller isolated looking clumps.
They don't know if it's from an illegal spill or what. The day was sunny so I couldn't really see what I was photographing at all for the sun's reflection but I did manage to capture an interesting photo of a piece of metal located by the storm output area. I didn't even notice I took this shot until I got home was was able to actually see it. Is this a pipeline? I have no clue if this is a pipe or not. All I know is that thing looks like a pipe in the photo. 
The fella I spoke with, and this is off the record, is the worker who runs the clean up group from Brampton called Accuworx. He has 40 years spills clean up experience behind him and he was hired by Toronto Water to do this job.  They put up booms, used vac trucks and absorbant cloths to remove debris and then they use high pressure water to blast the shores edge to remove oil from the sediment and absorb everything that floats up. Truthfully speaking they did a fantastic job. From the time I first observed the spill and the time I left there was a dramatic difference in the amount of oil found. It will still take up to a week to fully clean the area. I'm worried there may be a window recharge in this zone though. The smaller the particulates the more toxic. Wondering if they used any dispersal materials. 

I watched as they removed all debris from the pond in this area and disposed of it in a special garbage container for hazmat products. They also take the solvents and contaminated water to a recycling treatment area for processing. 
I thanked the clean up crew for their efforts. It's a heck of a job but they do the best they can with what they've got. 
I loaded up two youtube videos. The first youtube is loud because the pressure hose blasting the oil off the shoreline by the entry point of the storm drain. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fc7llnIFlu4

This second video shows the area where this little tributary connects to the larger Etobicoke Creek.  A couple of booms are set up here. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kRKI6z4jew

I'll send a couple more shots for your reference in the next email.
Lulu 

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