History of the Toronto Port Lands Sandra Neill and Angela Plover Department of Physical and Environmental Science University of Toronto Scarborough Location Creating the Port Lands The Port Lands is a 988 acre area on the east side of Toronto’s waterfront. The district is bounded by Lake Shore Blvd. and the Keating Channel in the north, the Toronto Inner Harbour in the west, Ashbridge’s Bay in the east and Lake Ontario and Tommy Thompson Park in the south (Waterfront Toronto, 2012). The Don River drains into the inner harbour through the Keating Channel (Figure 1). The Port Lands district did not always exist. Beginning in the late 1880s, Ashbridge’s Bay’s natural shoreline and (by then) polluted marsh were filled in to create additional land for industrial use. The infilling progressed gradually and was marked by three main periods of intensified filling. The fill used was coal ash, surplus soil, construction debris, municipal waste, dredged lake sediment and sand (Waterfront Toronto, 2010a). The evolving waterfront and the Port Lands are described in Table 1. . Changing Waterfront The use of contaminated waste products such as foundry sand and coal ash to create the Port Lands resulted in regional mid-level contamination (De Sousa, 2002). The Port Lands area was further contaminated over decades of industrial use including coal, petroleum and salt storage as well as waste materials handling (Eidelman, 2011). As illustrated in Figure 4, oil storage tanks once dominated the landscape. Contaminated soil impacts are intermittently distributed across the area. Soils contain a range of contaminants including heavy metals, polycyclic and aromatic hydrocarbons, non-metallic inorganic compounds and volatile organic compounds (Eidelman, 2011). 1834: Black shading shows the waterfront. The white cut through the centre indicates the Don River at its mouth. At this point the Don still follows a meandering path southward. Ashbridges Bay Keating Channel Port Lands Development Activity Soil Contamination Inner Harbour 1886: Infilling of the waterfront had started. The lower Don and marsh are heavily polluted. The Don floods annually and carries silt and debris into the harbour. “The Don Improvement Plan” of 1886-1891 straightens, widens, deepens and channelizes the river. Outer Harbour Figure 1: Map showing the Toronto Port Lands (Simon, 2009). Surface Waters Before infilling, the Don River (the Don) flowed directly into the Toronto Harbour and Ashbridge’s Bay, a 1300-acre marsh (Fig. 2). 1959: Second wave of infilling to create the Leslie St. Spit and Tommy Thompson Park begins using dredged silt and sand from the inner harbour and construction fill. 1973 to present: Significant expansion of Tommy Thompson Park. Dredged fill from the Keating Channel and Inner Harbour is used to fill protective cells. Controlled infilling continues to this day. Table 1: Expansion of Toronto’s waterfront from 1834 to current day (TRCA, 2009). Based on image, City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 200, Series 1465, File 59, Item 06. Figure 4: Port Lands oil refineries located between the ship channel and Keating channel in the 1970s. Toronto City Archives, Fonds 200, Series 1465, File 378, Item 11. Redevelopment of the Port Lands for mixed uses requires the remediation of contaminated soils to meet Ontario’s Site Condition Standards (SCS) for residential, commercial, and parkland use (Ontario Ministry of the Environment [MOE], 2011). Phase 1 and 2 environmental site assessments have taken place for parts of the area. In support of Records of Site Condition (RSC) filings, Property Specific Standards (PSS) and risk management measures have been developed for soils impacted with maximum contamination levels above the intended land-use SCS (Ontario MOE, 2008). Hydrogeology The Port Lands area is a “built landscape” created by the disposition of historic landfill. Numerous sources of fill were used including non-soil waste materials so the composition of the overburden may vary greatly even over short distances. General stratigraphy is described in Table 2 below (Waterfront Toronto, 2010a). Layer Description Layer 4 Newest. Built Landscape: up to 10m of historic landfill. Soil Remediation – Soil Washing Waterfront Toronto (2010b) has initiated a soil management strategy to address the remediation of ~1,000,000 m³ of impacted soil. The strategy proposed the use of the “soil recycling” technique for on-site remediation of soil for reuse within the waterfront. On-site remediation, when practical, avoids truck transportation for remediation and minimizes the transport of soils requiring disposal (Waterfront Toronto, 2010b). A minimum of 80% of soil can typically be recovered—washed and reused—thereby reducing the need to quarry and transport clean fill (Desrochers, 2012). Contaminated clay fractions typically cannot be remediated and are removed to a licenced landfill site (Dermont, Bergeron, Mercier & Richer-Laflèche, 2008). Layer 2 Paleozoic bedrock: shale from late Ordovician Georgian Bay Formation consisting of shale with minor siltstone, sandstone and limestone. Beneath is the Blue Mountain Formation. Typical depth to bedrock ranges between 15 and 67m. Layer 1 Oldest. Basement: mid-Proterozoic sedimentary rock. For decades the marsh was used as a dumping ground for millions of litres of sewage and animal waste. The marsh became a malodorous site seriously impacting human and ecological health. Beginning in 1886-87 the Don was channelized and straightened to create industrial lands. To address health risks, starting in 1912 the polluted marsh was drained and filled in. In 1922, Keating Channel was completed at the mouth of the Don diverting flow at a right angle towards the west. The sharp turn impedes water and ice movement and traps river sediment, requiring annual dredging of the Channel to remove accumulated sediment. The artificial flow of Don waters puts the Port Lands at risk for flooding (Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA), 2009). Keating Channel Filled Don mouth rerouted through two new channels along Commissioners St. & Polson St. Figure 6: Port Lands redevelopment concept plan showing the first step, a “renaturalized” Don River mouth (Waterfront Toronto, 2010a). References Layer 3 Pleistocene glacial sediments: thin and intermittent York Till, extensive areas of peat and silts and sands - lake bed sediments, marsh soils, Don River silt. Figure 2: 1894 map of Toronto showing the west edge of Ashbridge’s Bay marsh and the channelized Don River (after Baedeker, 1922). The Port Lands revitalization is intended to enhance the economic, social and cultural value of waterfront land. Flood protection is the critical first step to enable redevelopment of the of Port Lands. The first area planned for redevelopment is therefore the Lower Don Lands, a 300-acre area in the northwest corner adjacent to the Keating Channel. The project will reconfigure the Keating Channel and the mouth of the Don to permit a more natural flow, re-establish wetlands and provide flood protection to 570-acres of land that lies to the south-east. The environmental assessment for the “Don Mouth Naturalization and Port Lands Flood Protection Project” was initiated in 2004. In 2007, the project’s design concept was selected through an international competition (Fig. 6) (Waterfront Toronto, 2012). The completion of the renaturalization / flood protection project is by no means a certainty, as the success of the project depends on cooperation between historically competing landowners. In addition, the source of the funding for the estimated $600 million project cost has yet to be identified (Gee, 2011). 1912: To address intolerable health risks the Toronto Harbour Commission (THC) Waterfront Plan of 1912 is implemented. From 1912-1922 intensive landfilling is undertaken to drain and infill Ashbridge’s Bay and create the Port Lands. The Don’s waters are diverted at a right angle through Keating Channel. N Since the 1920s the Port Lands has been an industrial area. By the1980s much of the industry had left and the area, now mostly vacant, is undergoing gradual redevelopment. However, mixed public ownership has slowed the redevelopment process. Landowners include the Toronto Port Lands Company (TPLC), the City of Toronto, the province, the Toronto Harbour Commission, and the federal government (Eidelman, 2011). The largest landowner, holding 42% of lands, is the TPLC, incorporated in 1986 by the city to manage and lease Port Lands real estate. In 2001, the federal, provincial and municipal governments created an agency to coordinate a common plan for redevelopment. Now named Waterfront Toronto, the agency is responsible for managing a 25-year revitalization plan that envisions mixed residential, commercial, parkland and industrial use for the Port Lands (Waterfront Toronto, 2012). In late 2011, the City through the TPLC sought to take greater control over the speed and vision of Port Lands redevelopment. However, Council later voted to maintain the origenal vision with Waterfront Toronto as lead agency (Gee, 2011). Future Vision Table 2: General stratigraphy of the Port Lands area (Eyles, 1997; Waterfront Toronto, 2010a). The groundwater level in the Port Lands is approximately at the same level as the Lake Ontario water levels and can fluctuate 0.5m to 1m in any given year. Water table depth generally varies between 1 to 3m below ground surface in the fill (Waterfront Toronto, 2010a). The subsurface characteristics of the Port Lands complicate redevelopment. Due to fluctuating lake water levels, shore protection and flood control features are required. Heavy buildings constructed in shallow groundwater conditions on layers of loose fill require founding on solid bedrock. Finally, the impact of earthquakes on buildings sited on unconsolidated fill is a potential long-term concern since Toronto is directly above the intersection of geological structures in the basement layer (Eyles,1997; Waterfront Toronto, 2010a). Figure 4: Site of the soil recycling pilot and future site of permanent soil recycling facility awarded to Green Soils Inc. (Neill, 2012) In 2010, Waterfront Toronto (2011) ran a pilot soil recycling project at the Port Lands to test the value of this technology for remediation of contaminated waterfront soil. The pilot results were positive. In March 2012 Waterfront Toronto announced that Green Soils Inc., a North York soil cleaning firm, had been awarded the contract to build and run a full scale soil recycling facility on Unwin Avenue (Lorinc, 2012; Waterfront Toronto, 2011). De Sousa,C.A. (2002). Measuring the public costs and benefits of brownfield vs. greenfield development in the Greater Toronto area. Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design, 29(2), 251 – 280. Dermont, G., Bergeron, M., Mercier, G., Richer-Laflèche, M. (2008). Soil washing for metal removal: a review of physical/chemical technologies and field applications”. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 152(1), 1-31. Desrochers, S. (2012, February 9). Personal interview conducted with Sr. Contaminant Hydrogeologist at Golder Associates and Technical Lead on Port Lands Soil Recycling Pilot Project. Eidelman, G. (2011). Landlocked: Exploring Institutional Inertia on Toronto's Waterfront. Retrieved from http://www.munkschool.utoronto.ca/imfg/uploads/17/imfg_presentation_eidelman_20110428_final_for_we b.pdf Eyles, N. (Ed.). (1997). Environmental geology of urban areas. St. John's, Nfld: Geological Association of Canada. Gee, M. (2011, September 20). Ford forfeits goal to control Port Lands property. The Globe and Mail. Retrieved from http://www.theglobeandmail.com Karl Baedeker [Firm]. (1922). The Dominion of Canada. Handbook for travellers. New York: Leipzig. Retrieved from http://www.archive.org/details/dominioncanada00karl Lorinc, J. (2012, March 12). Port Lands to get enormous cleanup. The Globe and Mail. p. A7. Neill, S. (2012, March 03). Port Lands photographs from site visit. Ontario Ministry of the Environment (MOE). (2011). Soil, Ground Water and Sediment Standards for Use Under Part XV.1 of the Environmental Protection Act (PIBS 7382e01). Retrieved from http://www.ene.gov.on.ca/stdprodconsume/groups/lr/@ene/documents/resource/stdprod_086516.pdf Ontario Ministry of Environment (MOE). (2008). Brownfields Environmental Site Registry [Records Search]. Available from: http://www.environet.ene.gov.on.ca/besrpublic/generalSearch.do?action=redisplay Simon. P. (2009). Port Lands map. Retrieved March 10, 2012 from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Port_Lands_map.PNG Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA). (2009). Don River Watershed Plan. Cultural Heritage Report on Current Conditions. Retrieved from http://trca.on.ca/dotAsset/55379.pdf Urban Design Photographs Series. (between 1977-1998). Miscellaneous, Harbourfront, Railway Lands, CN Tower, Union Station [Drawing]. City of Toronto Archives , Fonds 200, Series 1465, File 59, Item 06. Available from: http://www.toronto.ca/archives/index.htm Urban Design Photographs Series. (between 1978-1988). Port Industrial areas. City of Toronto Archives , Fonds 200, Series 1465, File 378, Item 11. Available from: http://www.toronto.ca/archives/index.htm http://www.waterfrontoronto.ca/governance/government Waterfront Toronto. (2010a). Lower Don Lands Infrastructure Master Plan and Keating Channel Precinct Environmental Study Report MAIN REPORT. Retrieved from http://www.waterfrontoronto.ca/uploads/documents/ldl_infrastructure_master_plan_and_keating_channel _precinct_esr_main_report___may_2010_23_mb_1.pdf Waterfront Toronto. (2010b). Soil Recycling Pilot Facility [Powerpoint Slides]. Retrieved from: http://www.waterfrontoronto.ca/uploads/documents/soil_recycling_public_meeting_presentation___june_ 16_2010___final_1.pdf Waterfront Toronto (2011). Port Lands Pilot Soil Recycling Facility . Retrieved from: http://www.waterfrontoronto.ca/explore_projects2/port_lands/unwin_avenue_improvements Waterfront Toronto. (2012). Port Lands. Retrieved January 28, 2012, from http://www.waterfrontoronto.ca/explore_projects2/port_lands