[getsmart-l] The dirty Don - but it is ours to clean up!!

[John O'Gorman]

http://www.thestar.com/article/283454

ENVIRONMENT 
TheStar.com | Environment | 
The dirty Don

Ontario's worst river trails garbage, sludge and toxins 
Cars and trucks roaring overhead drown out the sound of water lapping up against the concrete banks at the mouth of the Don River.
Environment Canada's water quality index puts a numeric value to the `embarrassment' that is the river: 34.8 out of 100

Peter Gorrie 
ENVIRONMENT REPORTER Toronto Star Dec 07, 2007 04:30 AM 

Encased in concrete walls for much of its length, poisoned by runoff from sewers and streets, the turbid Don is Ontario's dirtiest river, and one of the worst in Canada.

The river, which flows a mere 38 kilometres from its nearly pristine source on the Oak Ridges Moraine to its garbage-choked, oil-slicked mouth on Lake Ontario, scored a lowly 34.8, on a scale of zero to 100, in an Environment Canada calculation of water quality, released yesterday.

The main problem is a glut of phosphorous, chlorine and ammonia, mainly from human and animal sewage, fertilizer and road salt.

The Humber, Credit, and others in the region fared better in the ranking of 395 rivers across the country, based on averages of seven contaminants from 2003 to 2005.

The absolute worst, anywhere, are Quebec's Yamaska and Bayonne rivers, despoiled by pollution from pulp mills and languishing at around 27 points.

The figures are contained in the third annual Canadian Environmental Sustainability Index, which also shows southern Ontario has some of Canada's worst air quality. Environment Canada compiles the index from water sampling done by other government agencies.

The main question is whether the Don is improving.

"The Don is symbolic of a lot of the problems with environmental policy in Ontario," said Mark Mattsen, president of Lake Ontario Waterkeepers. "The river is hardly a river at all. It's an embarrassment."

The city has a $1 billion, 25-year plan to clean up the big pollution sources – sewers that flush sewage, chemicals and fertilizer into the river, particularly during heavy rains. The torrents of stormwater also rip away branches, stones, gravel and other fish habitat.

It's also promoting smaller measures to keep contaminants out of the water, including changes that individuals can make, such as disconnecting downspouts from the sewers and replacing pavement with absorbent surfaces.

And the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority is leading the restoration of wetlands and other natural areas, and a project to release the Don's mouth from its cement straitjacket.

The effort is far too slow, Mattsen said. "It's being put off to another generation." The restoration is "window dressing."

City officials and Adele Freeman, the authority's river expert, would also like the work speeded up. 

Even so, Freeman said: "The city is doing a tremendous amount of work. There are a lot of reasons for hope. With water quality, "we have a way to go. But all in all, it's getting better." 

The Don does support 14 species of fish, but some are found only in its cleaner northern reaches, and those in the lower river are mainly pollution-tolerant types such as suckers and jackfish.

But coho salmon – planted in the lake to encourage sport fishing – have made their way upstream as far as Markham, Freeman said. They're not spawning in the river yet, but it's a start.

The Humber scored 60.2 on Environment Canada's index, much better than the Don even though it receives a similar amount of contamination. But it's three times as big, with far more forest, marsh and other natural areas remaining in its watershed. That gives it more chance to cleanse itself.

More than 80 per cent of the Don's drainage area is urbanized, compared with just 26 per cent for the Humber, Freeman said.

The key to major improvement in the Don is to stop the flow from sewers, and a big part of that is separating the storm and sanitary systems, said Lou Di Gironimo, general manager of Toronto Water. Now, in older parts of the city, heavy rains cause human sewage to overflow into storm pipes. Storm flows must also be managed so the water is contained until it's treated.

The effort involves three major projects, which are to be assessed by consultants over the next two years and must undergo lengthy environmental assessments.

It would help if the environmental reviews were faster, Di Gironimo said. "I'd like to move quicker, but I have to follow the legal process." 

The city will need money from the province and Ottawa, he said. "If they don't contribute it would be a significant issue."

But the sheer size of the projects means they'll take time, he said. At best, the 25 years could be whittled to 15 or 20.

AIR QUALITY


The Sustainability Index also assesses air quality. It reports:

Across Canada, ozone exposure – from gasoline and other fossil fuels – increased 12 per cent from 1990 to 2005. Canadian industries have increased their energy efficiency and produce fewer greenhouse gases per unit of production. But economic growth meant both still went up in total.

>From 1994 to 2006, the proportion of households using compact fluorescent lights tripled to 60 per cent. The proportion with programmable thermostats doubled to 40 per cent, but 16 per cent of those don't program them.
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