It's a rather indelicate topic, but sometimes when Toronto residents flush their toilets, the contents don't go where they should -- the local sewage plant. Instead, in a practice more common in developing countries than in Canada's largest city, the sewage is dumped into the nearest stream.
Municipal inspectors made the discovery recently through in-depth sleuthing along a single city waterway.
The investigation isn't complete, but the inspectors have found three homes, an apartment building and a strip mall whose toilets or other wastewater pipes were dumping raw sewage directly into Taylor-Massey Creek, which meanders 16 kilometres through the city's east end before joining up with the Don River and flowing into Toronto Harbour.
The worst-contaminated pipes leaked E. coli bacteria into the creek at a level 20,000 times provincial water-quality guidelines. The teeming contamination was a clear sign that toilets weren't connected to sanitary sewers, as required under bylaws, but hooked up to a separate latticework of pipes that are supposed to drain rainwater into nearby streams.
The discoveries didn't please Alex Marich, who headed the city's inspection effort. His staff had the unpleasant task of peering down hundreds of smelly water pipes, hunting for the improper toilet connections.
"I wouldn't say it's glamorous, because we are dealing with contaminants," Mr. Marich said of the effort. Still, the work has its compensations, he said, because it is leading to a cleaner environment. "That's our main objective: Clean up the water."
Taylor-Massey Creek meets the better-known Don River at Don Mills Road and the Don Valley Parkway.
By some estimates, the creek has been responsible for about 80 per cent of the pollutants entering the Don.
Local councillor Janet Davis asked for the inspection last year after learning part of the creek had turned red because of effluent from a nearby industrial facility. Although investigators found the coloration to be harmless, Ms. Davis called the discovery of raw sewage "quite shocking."
To get to the root of the sewage problem, city staff pored over the creek's banks for the past two summers, looking at every entering pipe to see if it was leaking sewage. Summer students took water samples from the prime suspects: pipes that had a flow of water even when it hadn't rained recently.
One of their surprising findings was that the city had information on only about half of the 252 pipes along the waterway, a reflection of poor record keeping and the decision of private individuals to run drains off their properties.
Of the 252 pipes, 44 were leaking contaminants into the creek. Of the latter number, 28 had such high levels of pollution that the city designated them "priority outfalls" that needed to be investigated urgently.
The worst contamination was in a pair of pipes that drained into the creek at its headwaters around Highway 401 and Pharmacy Avenue. Each had about two million E. coli bacteria swarming in each half cup of water tested.
At one of the pipes, inspectors found that a home was connected to the storm sewer, rather than the sanitary sewer. The homeowner was told, and hired a plumber to fix the problem. Inspectors are still trying to find the source of the E. coli in the other pipe.
To find errant toilet connections, inspectors send a small video camera through the storm sewers, searching for what Mr. Marich politely calls "debris" -- piles of excrement and toilet paper. Inspectors watch on monitors from their trucks, and when they see something suspicious, they go to nearby homes or businesses and pour dye down the drains to find the culprit. Usually, the homeowners and business owners have no idea they're dumping untreated wastewater.
City inspectors found two commercial buildings on Eglinton Avenue East hooked up to the storm sewer. The city notified the owners of the properties -- a strip mall and an apartment -- and told them to fix the problems.
One source was 2372 Eglinton Ave. East, a strip mall with a coin laundry, a pizzeria, a convenience store-cum-gas station and the Sea Town restaurant.
At the Sea Town, the drains had backed up and overflowed three times this year. Two months ago, when they backed up for the third time, owner Mickey Raghoo, made a dash to Home Depot with his brother Terry. They rented an electrical sewer snake for $40 and forced the drain open. They didn't know that they were discharging sewage into nearby Taylor-Massey Creek.
Terry Raghoo, who was tending bar recently at the airy, bright yellow Sea Town, said city officials took water from the washrooms several months ago. "They just took some samples and asked us for the contact information of [the landlord]" Mr. Raghoo said. That was the last he saw of the inspectors. Shortly afterward, some work was done on the east side of the property.
The city also served notice to the property manager of Stamford Hill Manor, a seven-storey apartment complex across the street from the mall. An inspection there revealed that discharge from the washing machines in the laundry room was entering the storm sewer.
"Around two years ago, we relocated some of the machines in the laundry room," said Harry Marder, president of Marbrook Development Inc., which owns the building. The plumber made a mistake while changing the plumbing. "We found out about the problem only after we received a notice from the city. It was the plumber's mistake and he came and fixed it for free."
Mr. Marich says he believes the errant sewer connections were inadvertent, and he praised both property owners for correcting them quickly. "I don't think anybody does it intentionally," he said. But in case there isn't a fast response, the city can seek fines of up to $50,000 for those who dump sewage.
Nancy Penny, who lives near the creek and is a member of the Taylor-Massey Project, a conservation group, says the contamination is common knowledge in the area.
"We know there is crap going into it," Ms. Penny said. But she praised the effort to root out the sewage, because it means there will eventually be "nice clean water running into Lake Ontario."
According to Mr. Marich, the city doesn't intend to stop at the Taylor-Massey Creek. Inspectors plan to look at every stream in Toronto over the next five years.