Toronto Port Authority threatens nearby Lake Ontario water quality

Big dig for an unneeded tunnel to save airline passengers 5 minutes will muddy the waters and cause other harm if port authority gets its wish, says community group

By Brian Iler –

Toronto Port Authority (TPA), an independent federal government agency, has approved the construction of a pedestrian tunnel from the mainland to the Island airport under the Western Gap of Toronto Harbour. The construction is already underway. In May of this year the TPA announced that they planned to dump the fill excavated from the tunnel into Toronto Harbour. At a recent meeting, members of the TPA staff said that they expect to receive final approval of this project by “mid-summer” in time to begin to dispose of the fill as it is excavated.

This has alarmed members of CommunityAIR because we fear that the dumping of this fill will, or could, seriously harm the water quality of Toronto Harbour. We believe that more detailed scientific study must be done before this goes ahead.  We have two specific concerns.

•    The dumping of fill into the harbour will reduce the volume of water in Toronto Harbour. The harbour has been much reduced over the years with the filling of water lots both along the Waterfront and on Toronto Island.  Recreational boaters are also alarmed that filling the bay will limit their access to the waters of Toronto Harbour.

•    The excavated material coming from the tunnel and dumped into the harbour will be clean shale, but by the time it is brought to the surface it will be fractured and ground up into small particles as a result of the excavation process. When it is dumped into the harbour this particulate matter will be acted on by the water and wave action, and we fear it will seriously deteriorate the water quality because small particles will remain suspended in the water for a long time. The TPA claims that this new fill will be good for fish habitat, but it could well be very harmful to fish because the particles lodge in their gills.

The reality is that at this point no one knows the impact of this project on the water quality of Toronto Harbour, and we feel that it should not go ahead until an independent scientific study determines the full impact.

The legislation that governs the agency grants TPA the power to propose projects such as this, manage the Environmental Assessment process and make the final approval on the project. The process does not allow an arms-length assessment. The TPA has indicated that they have no interest in conducting an independent, scientific study on the harmful effects to water quality that might result from this project.

The City of Toronto, the Toronto Regional Conservation Authority and the Ontario Government have worked very hard to improve the water quality of Lake Ontario and the Toronto Harbour in recent decades. Millions of dollars have been spent on sewer projects and even now there are major studies and discussions about the naturalization of the mouth of the Don River that will impact on the water quality of the harbour. To approve this project to dump massive amounts of fill into the harbour with such haste and without adequate study and public discussion is irresponsible.

We have brought our concerns to the Toronto Port Authority, but unfortunately we have no confidence that they will take them seriously. The TPA has indicated they will not authorize an independent scientific study on water quality. They appear to be determined to approve the project by mid-summer and then immediately begin dumping of fill into the harbour.

We are appealing to various public agenies. If TPA will not listen to concerned citizens, then maybe they will listen to other public agencies that have spent considerable public resources to clean up Toronto Harbour and continue to have an interest in maintaining water quality.