Humber Islands

The Humber Islands were a proposed plan to use landfill to build artificial islands off the mouth of the Humber River in Toronto, Canada.[1][2][3][4] The islands would have diverted water flowing from the Humber that, at certain times of the year makes it unsafe to swim on beaches east of the mouth.

The proposal was first drafted in 2002.[3] The Globe and Mail reported the proposal was "dusted off" again in 2012, when the city was renewing efforts make sure it was consistently safe to swim at all of Toronto's eleven beaches. Heavy rains wash pollutants down the Humber River making it unsafe to swim at Sunnyside Beach and Marie Curtis Beach.

The Islands would be connected by an underwater berm and would have formed a chain that extended about one kilometer into the lake.[3] The Islands would have required 1,800,000 cubic metres of landfill.[1][2] Toronto is building a 19 kilometres (12 mi) light rail line, with an 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) segment, and in 2012, planners suggested the waste soil from the tunnels and stations could supply close to half the soil needed for the islands. Some commentators were concerned the soil shouldn't be used as landfill in Lake Ontario due to fears of contamination. Other asserted the waste from the tunnels would be too deep to have been contaminated and the regions had not been used for heavy industry.

The city estimated it could collect $18 million in tipping fees.[1][2]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Paul Moloney (2012-06-19). "Humber islands plan could solve soil dumping woes". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on 2014-03-24. The city’s water department proposed building the archipelago to deflect Humber River water away from Sunnyside Beach to make it consistently safe for swimming. It would require up to 2 million cubic metres of soil. A staff report suggested Eglinton Crosstown could supply 800,000 cubic metres.
  2. 1 2 3 Paul Moloney (2012-04-03). "Island life coming to Humber?". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on 2014-03-24. The string of islands would go in at the mouth of the Humber River and extend about one kilometre from shore. The plan would take clean fill from construction jobs to build a solid earth barrier underwater that would deflect polluted Humber River water out into the lake and away from Sunnyside Beach.
  3. 1 2 3 Marcus Gee (2012-03-20). "Man-made Humber islands would solve two problems at once". Globe and Mail. Archived from the original on 2014-03-03. Retrieved 2014-03-24. Officials often come to city council to propose new bylaws, garbage fees or tree-planting programs. It is not every day that one of them suggests creating an archipelago. That was what Lou Di Gironimo did this month when he presented a clever plan to build a series of small islands off the mouth of the Humber River on the western waterfront.
  4. ↑ Kristin Anabelle (2012-04-05). "WFT: Have dirt? Make a Leslie Street Spit West". National Post. Archived from the original on 2013-12-06. Retrieved 2014-03-24. If you’ve been wondering what the City of Toronto might do with all that rock and soil that will be removed during construction of the Eglinton crosstown LRT, here is one possibility courtesy of Toronto Water: A proposal has been made to build a series of man-made islands extending from the mouth of the Humber River. A kind of Leslie Street Spit West, the land would extend about one kilometre from Sunnyside Beach.


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