{"id":949,"date":"2006-07-04T12:14:21","date_gmt":"2006-07-04T16:14:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=949"},"modified":"2013-01-21T13:53:37","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T18:53:37","slug":"working-towards-clean-beautiful-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/07\/04\/working-towards-clean-beautiful-water\/","title":{"rendered":"Working Towards A Clean and Beautiful Waterfront"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nLast night I was at Cherry Beach watching the fireworks and lamenting the fact that I hadn’t brought a bathing suit to hop in the lake. When I told this to a friend, he gave me the look your mother used to give you when you told her you’d eaten Taco Bell for lunch. It’s a shame this is the dominant attitude about the water in the city, though it’s not unjustified. The Post<\/em><\/a> even lists a trip to the islands to go swimming as on its top ten list of “lesser-known” Toronto summer activities.<\/p>\n

In case you missed it, there was a big article<\/a> in the Star<\/em> over the weekend about the ongoing effort to clean up the beaches. The article asks: “Should every last beach be made safe for swimming, or should we aim for a more modest goal?” It’s tough to think we should aim for anything less than clean water, not just for our own sake, but for the environment as well, but the problem is complex. Here’s a somewhat unsavoury excerpt about the sources of pollution:<\/p>\n

The biggest is the flood of contaminated water that washes into storm sewers from streets, parking lots, roofs and lawns when it rains. There are 2,600 outfalls throughout Toronto: About 100 discharge directly into the lake; the rest flow into the rivers and creeks. They disgorge a witch’s brew of garbage, toxic metals, animal feces, oil, fertilizer and pesticides. In the older, central city, storm and sanitary sewers are combined, so human wastes spice the stew.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The article also discusses the new sewage treatment plant in the west end that should make Sunnyside swimmable 70% of the season instead of 10%, which is good news for the underused facility. Here<\/a> is a description of how these tanks work and how they’re changing the water quality in the city.<\/p>\n

Swimming in the water is something most Torontonians liken to leaping into a vat of radioactive waste, but the article reminds us that 6 of the 10 are swimmable, including 4 which have the blue flag, an international indicator of clean, safe beaches. While some have criticized the blue flag program as a way for council to ignore the greater problem of pollution in the lake, it remains the brightest symbol of hope that the beaches may be swimmable one day. You can find daily measurements of water quality at this official website<\/a>, as well as a description of the blue flag program.<\/p>\n

Keeping the beaches clean is not only the job of the city, however, but also the public. Not feeding the birds, for example, can help a lot. Michael D’Andrea, the director of water infrastructure management, reminds us that the city cannot do it all, and that “[t]he public needs to take some carriage of it.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last night I was at Cherry Beach watching the fireworks and lamenting the fact that I hadn’t brought a bathing suit to hop in the lake. When I told this to a friend, he gave me the look your mother used to give you when you told her you’d eaten Taco Bell for lunch. It’sContinue reading “Working Towards A Clean and Beautiful Waterfront”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13,5],"tags":[2369,2742,23,2743,679,405,19,2744,2741],"class_list":["post-949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-green-space","category-waterfront","tag-cherry-beach","tag-director-of-water-infrastructure-management","tag-environment","tag-michael-dandrea","tag-oil","tag-the-star","tag-toronto","tag-water","tag-water-infrastructure-management"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWorking Towards A Clean and Beautiful Waterfront - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/07\/04\/working-towards-clean-beautiful-water\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Working Towards A Clean and Beautiful Waterfront - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last night I was at Cherry Beach watching the fireworks and lamenting the fact that I hadn’t brought a bathing suit to hop in the lake. When I told this to a friend, he gave me the look your mother used to give you when you told her you’d eaten Taco Bell for lunch. It’sContinue reading "Working Towards A Clean and Beautiful Waterfront"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/07\/04\/working-towards-clean-beautiful-water\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2006-07-04T16:14:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-01-21T18:53:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.thestar.com\/images\/thestar\/img\/060701_diane_chester_300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ian Malczewski\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ian Malczewski\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/07\/04\/working-towards-clean-beautiful-water\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/07\/04\/working-towards-clean-beautiful-water\/\",\"name\":\"Working Towards A Clean and Beautiful Waterfront - Spacing Toronto\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/07\/04\/working-towards-clean-beautiful-water\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/07\/04\/working-towards-clean-beautiful-water\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.thestar.com\/images\/thestar\/img\/060701_diane_chester_300.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2006-07-04T16:14:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-01-21T18:53:37+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/70c3743d83f0867470389e29de401a88\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/07\/04\/working-towards-clean-beautiful-water\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/07\/04\/working-towards-clean-beautiful-water\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/07\/04\/working-towards-clean-beautiful-water\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.thestar.com\/images\/thestar\/img\/060701_diane_chester_300.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.thestar.com\/images\/thestar\/img\/060701_diane_chester_300.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/07\/04\/working-towards-clean-beautiful-water\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Working Towards A Clean and Beautiful Waterfront\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/\",\"name\":\"Spacing Toronto\",\"description\":\"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered | Toronto Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/70c3743d83f0867470389e29de401a88\",\"name\":\"Ian Malczewski\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a444b5aa0de85723efd31cc940a6288b?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a444b5aa0de85723efd31cc940a6288b?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Ian Malczewski\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/author\/ian\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Working Towards A Clean and Beautiful Waterfront - Spacing Toronto","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/07\/04\/working-towards-clean-beautiful-water\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Working Towards A Clean and Beautiful Waterfront - Spacing Toronto","og_description":"Last night I was at Cherry Beach watching the fireworks and lamenting the fact that I hadn’t brought a bathing suit to hop in the lake. When I told this to a friend, he gave me the look your mother used to give you when you told her you’d eaten Taco Bell for lunch. It’sContinue reading \"Working Towards A Clean and Beautiful Waterfront\"","og_url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/07\/04\/working-towards-clean-beautiful-water\/","og_site_name":"Spacing Toronto","article_published_time":"2006-07-04T16:14:21+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-01-21T18:53:37+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.thestar.com\/images\/thestar\/img\/060701_diane_chester_300.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Ian Malczewski","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Spacing","twitter_site":"@Spacing","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ian Malczewski","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/07\/04\/working-towards-clean-beautiful-water\/","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/07\/04\/working-towards-clean-beautiful-water\/","name":"Working Towards A Clean and Beautiful Waterfront - Spacing Toronto","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/07\/04\/working-towards-clean-beautiful-water\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/07\/04\/working-towards-clean-beautiful-water\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.thestar.com\/images\/thestar\/img\/060701_diane_chester_300.jpg","datePublished":"2006-07-04T16:14:21+00:00","dateModified":"2013-01-21T18:53:37+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/70c3743d83f0867470389e29de401a88"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/07\/04\/working-towards-clean-beautiful-water\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/07\/04\/working-towards-clean-beautiful-water\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/07\/04\/working-towards-clean-beautiful-water\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.thestar.com\/images\/thestar\/img\/060701_diane_chester_300.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.thestar.com\/images\/thestar\/img\/060701_diane_chester_300.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/07\/04\/working-towards-clean-beautiful-water\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Working Towards A Clean and Beautiful Waterfront"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/","name":"Spacing Toronto","description":"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered | Toronto Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/70c3743d83f0867470389e29de401a88","name":"Ian Malczewski","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a444b5aa0de85723efd31cc940a6288b?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a444b5aa0de85723efd31cc940a6288b?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Ian Malczewski"},"url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/author\/ian\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4019"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=949"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37486,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949\/revisions\/37486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}