What can be done to protect Cootes?
City promises more testing, pollution studies and collaboration
Unless Ontario’s environmental regulator says otherwise, Hamilton will not do any cleanup in Cootes Paradise as a result of a 24-billion-litre sewage spill.
But the infamous four-year spill has focused attention on the plight of the pollution plagued marsh — and city council has vowed to do more to protect and monitor the beloved paddling spot and wildlife sanctuary.
That includes a watershed study of the upper reaches of Chedoke Creek, water-quality testing in sewage-soaked urban creeks and renewed (post-pandemic) teamwork with other local environmental agencies.
City council voted Wednesday to accept a study that found Cootes Paradise suffered no “long-term impacts” from a sewage spill between 2014 and 2018 — although consultant SLR acknowledged no new sediment sampling was done for the report.
The Royal Botanical Gardens, which owns much of the marsh, also did not see the study ahead of time.
RBG CEO Mark Runciman did not offer an opinion on the study Wednesday, but in an email said he believes “robust analysis” is needed to determine “remediation required to recover from the damage” of the four-year spill.
It’s up to the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks — which ordered the city to come up with a spill remediation and monitoring plan — to decide if it agrees with the noaction proposal.
Spokesperson Jennifer Hall said the ministry has yet to review the report — but added it has “invited Royal Botanical Gardens to provide their comments” on the findings.
In the meantime, the city is promising more pollution fighting studies, if not a cleanup. Here is what’s on tap:
Water testing
Last year, council voted to hire new staff to inspect tanks and gates — like the one that failed under Cathedral Park in 2014 and led to the four-year sewage spill.
That also includes a waterquality technologist who will design a “testing strategy” to monitor locations along Red Hill and Chedoke creeks that are sometimes befouled by sewer overflows.
The Spectator reported last year that conservation authority testing in Chedoke showed spikes in dangerous E. coli levels during the big spill, but city officials said they did not have regular access to the data.
Creek watershed study
Amazingly, a four-year sewage spill may not be the worst challenge facing poor Chedoke Creek.
The urban watercourse runs through a concrete channel along Highway 403. It has the old west Hamilton dump looming on its banks. And it may have more pollution sources lurking in its upper reaches that the city will seek out in a new watershed study, said general manager of public works Dan McKinnon.
That study will also be a chance to evaluate a novel idea — pitched by the RBG — to add floating wetlands and aeration pipes near the mouth of Chedoke.
Remedial Action Plan 2.0
Hamilton took a lot of flak for not revealing the magnitude of the big sewage spill to the public or its partners.
The city has vowed to re-engage with agencies like the RBG and Bay Area Restoration Council in what McKinnon calls RAP 2.0, referring to the Hamilton Harbour Remedial Action Plan.
That plan started decades ago after the polluted harbour was declared a national “area of concern” and is best-known for projects like a $130-million effort to trap toxic Randle Reef in a steel box.
The city envisions a new focus on the “wider watershed,” including pollutants that enter many creeks feeding Cootes Paradise or the rest of Hamilton Harbour.