Did keeping Chedoke sewage details secret put public health at risk?
City health officials say posted signs around the polluted creek were enough to warn away paddlers
Christopher Bye asked the city repeatedly in May why signs still warned against going for a paddle near the outlet of Chedoke Creek in Cootes Paradise.
The Hamilton resident knew about the sewage overflow found in 2018 that boosted bacterial levels around the nearby Princess Point boat launch 10 times higher than the safe threshold for recreational use.
But he also thought the mess had been cleaned up close to a year ago. "I wondered, did something else happen? I couldn't get a straight answer," said Bye, who described his questions being "bounced" between public health and the water department.
"I just wanted to know if I could go kayaking safely with my daughter — and if not, why not," he said. "I guess I understand a little bit better now."
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A confidential report shows city councillors have known since January that 24-billion litres of sewage — enough to fill 10,000 Olympic swimming pools — escaped undetected over four years from a sewer overflow tank into Chedoke Creek, which outlets into Cootes Paradise.
Council repeatedly voted to keep the information secret over legal liability concerns, but The Spectator published the numbers Wednesday.
There was no public health reason to release those details, said associate medical officer of health Dr. Bart Harvey, because signs warning against swimming, paddling or fishing in the creek were posted "before and after" the sewage spill was discovered. Ingesting water with high E. coli counts spurred by sewage spills can cause diarrhea, nausea, stomach pain and earaches, among other problems. Sewage spills can also promote growth of toxic algae.
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The city signs simply emphasize contact with the water can make you sick. "That has been the public health messaging (for Chedoke) all along," Harvey said, because urban run-off and upstream sewage overflows have historically made the creek unsafe, even before the spill.
Bye and his 13-year-old daughter played it safe in May and did not kayak close to the outlet of Chedoke. "But I've see plenty of people happily paddling down the creek," he said. "And it's not like it is somehow walled off from Princess Point."
Princess Point is one of the city's most popular paddling put-in sites. At the height of the spill in 2018, officials pulled out the canoe launch dock — but water quality has since improved dramatically. Last summer, bacterial levels near the dock exceeded the safe threshold only once between May and September.
mvandongen@thespec.com
905-526-3241 | @Mattatthespec
905-526-3241 | @Mattatthespec