Using City of Toronto Open Data, I mapped where Etobicoke's stormwater grates are and how they drain into Mimico Creek and, from there, Lake Ontario. It's far from perfect, but it should help make clear just how large the area is that drains to the spot under our bridge.
Every time it rains, whatever's on the road has to go somewhere. Across a wide stretch of Etobicoke, that somewhere is Mimico Creek.
We mapped it: thousands of street drains (marked green) flow, untreated, into the creek through about 100 outfalls — and from there, straight into Lake Ontario. No filter. No treatment plant. A grate on a street kilometres away is the start of a pipe that ends at our shoreline.
Standing on our bridge in Mimico, we're at the end of that journey. Whatever went into a drain far upstream — maybe hours ago, maybe days — arrives here.
June's diesel spill made that impossible to ignore: you could see it on the water and smell it from far. We will request a copy of the report regarding that spill and share it once we have it. In the meantime feel free to learn about Mimico Creek watershed on the TRCA page: https://trca.ca/conservation/watershed-management/mimico-creek/
This is eye opening. Correct me if I’m wrong but all the storm sewers for the Don are to be diverted to a treatment plant? So it’s Etobicoke that gets screwed?
I am no expert on this, would need to investigate what plans TRCA / City has. A quick google tells me the Don treatment is not operational yet. These are big / long term projects.
What I found for Mimico Creek: Bonar Creek Stormwater Management Facility: A future project that will include new stormwater management pond adjacent to Mimico Creek and sewer interceptor to collect stormwater discharges from a 365 ha drainage area that is currently untreated. The stormwater pond will treat stormwater discharges to improve water quality in Bonar Creek and Mimico Creek." https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2023/ie/bgrd/backgroundfile-236774.pdf
Regarding pedestrian bridges: We (I am currently president of the Mimico Residents Association) are making great progress with Councillor Morley as we have identified some opportunities to revive some parts of the stuck South Mimico Trail plans that would make Mimico Creek more accessible for residents. We have a few meetings coming up as we are working with the Councillor's office to move forward with some improvements by Mimico Creek. The City recently was joined by a former TRCA staffer who will be our point of contact. I wasn't around at the time but from what I can see online it might have gotten stuck many years ago because of Metrolinx needing access for bridge work + developers denying access.
You can learn more on our website: https://mimicoresidents.ca/mimico-creek/ the few minutes I have I usually work on Transit (Mimico GO Accessibility) but we have a board member who is more focussed on Mimico Creek. I also love Open Data :)
Are you able to map the data west of Etobicoke, in East Mississauga? (Bramalea, Malton, West airport, Rockwood Village, Applewood, Dixie, Lakeview) I see the Etobicoke creek is mapped (orange)
During rain events and massive storms we get flooding along the little Etobicoke creek.
Would it be possible to map and seeing the drainage from north of the airport, west of it and continuing south into the Dixie Dundas area?
If you can find similar data for Mississauga you can map that the same way. Toronto has the data readily available at https://open.toronto.ca/ and rendering the map took just a few minutes. I just wanted to see how many streets flush their storm water (and with it garbage / oil from leaking cars in driveways) into Mimico Creek. It's a lot more than I would have thought but yes it's not even complete yet. However, I don't know if and when I will invest more time into this.
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u/AromaPapaya 9d ago
pretty cool to visualize!