[All] Spills update and video links

[water.lulu at yahoo.ca]

Hi Everyone
We have a major oil spill in the Grand and it's going to take months to clean this up no doubt. 
I spotted it on May 1st and took this video which is about 20 minutes. Worst areas can be viewed around 9 minutes into the video.  The spill was first reported  April 29th and this video was taken the afternoon of May 1st.  At the time I observed folks fishing in the river and folks letting their dogs play in the water.  They had no clue of the mess downstream because there was no signs to warn at all. Here is the first video I took: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_KTgox3Zeo\
So these other folks posted a video showing unboomed areas to the south of the spill and posted on youtube. Their video here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpQX4m0OQ1Q

So the next day I went back to see the view downstream for myself and I found a large area oil filled that was not boomed off. This was at M.R. Good Park. Video here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5EYZe7eth8

I reported this to Spills Action Centre. The booms were later expanded to include 500m of shoreline thanks in part to the video which was shared with city and regional officials. 
I went further south looking at various parks to see if there were signs of the spill. The furthest south I went was Pioneer Park and still the film was in the water and traces of oil washing up. The video doesn't capture the sheen very good but if you look at it full screen it does capture particulates of the oil droplets going by which makes me wonder if disbursal products were used.  Videos of that day here: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWuLm5uooYs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mrxQlxBSlE

After filming this I went to the Region and notified Eric Hodgins at the Regional Water Services then I went to the City of Kitchener on the 9th floor and spoke with staff involved via phone. I notified them that citizens are generally unaware of the spill. They were still visiting parks, fishing and letting dogs run freely.  It's tricky to reach people using news when they are watching netflix and listening mp3 music. I notified to let them know onsite signs by parking lots and access points might help. 
The media has since warned people to stay away from the shore until the areas are safe. That is the message I put out in social media too. 
Lulu :0)
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