Not In My Backyard (or Park)!

Well, file this in the interesting but not surprising category, but it turns out that social media is already playing a significant role in the Toronto Public Workers Strike. Case in point – the reaction of the Toronto community group “Friends of Christie Pits Park” to the city’s decision to turn a portion of the eponymous park into a temporary garbage dump. In the week since the city’s decision to open the temporary dump sites, “Friends of Christie Pits Park” has organized and staged almost daily protests at the park and raised awareness of the potential environmental hazards of the dumping.

Christie Pits last saw the unwanted dumping during the 2002 public workers strike which lasted two weeks. Although there were many community residents then who spoke out against the dump site, the reaction of today’s community residents is vastly more organized and swift. Through a combination of Google Groups, Facebook and Twitter, “Friends” has managed to bring out over 100 city residents to the protests at the park, and most recently were able to block the proposed spraying of toxins on the dump site – all within seven days.

One community resident, Boris Steipe, sent out a message to the Google Group “Friends of Christie Pits Park” on July 2nd entitled “Notes on Leachate”. After collecting a sample of the liquid gathering at the dump site and doing some online research, Boris was able to identify the substance as leachate, which Wikipedia states is,  “caused principally by precipitation percolating through waste deposited in a landfill. Once in contact with decomposing solid waste, the percolating water becomes contaminated and if it then flows out of the waste material it is termed leachate”. Certainly quite typical in landfills, the Wikipedia entry goes on to state that leachate, “can be mitigated by properly designed and engineered landfill sites, such as sites that are constructed on geologically impermeable materials or sites that use impermeable liners made of geotextiles or engineered clay”. However, the hockey arena that is currently home to the temporary dump in Christie Pits, seems unlikely to meet the standards of a properly engineered landfill site.

Undoubtedly having this knowledge in mind, the City of Toronto is under strict obligation to maintain the health standards of the dump site, which means the spraying of controlling insecticides. Again Steipe and the community were quick to investigate the nature of these insecticides and once again quickly publicized their findings. In a post to the Google Group entitled “Update on Insecticides in Christie Pits”, Steipe informs that the City of Toronto Health Office confirmed that the pesticide ‘permethrin’ is being used in the park. Steipe goes on to state that, “permethrin is generally safe for most mammals, not however for cats. In cats it can lead to seizures”.

The toxic situation seems to have come to a head last night (July 1) as community residents along with picketing CUPE members refused to let Orkin, a pest-controlling company employed by the city, into the dump site to resume spraying. Although both groups had different agendas – community residents not having all the facts about what is being sprayed and CUPE members citing a breach of their agreement with the city – their blockade of the park was successful, for the time being. Following the standoff, Steipe quickly recounted the situation in a message sent out to the online community at 12:13am. Following this, fellow “Friend” member Govind Rao sent out a message at 1:03am with a schedule asking community residents to sign up for shifts, in order to continue the blockade of the park.

Just this morning, Rao launched an official complaint with the Ministry of the Environment citing the following complaints:
a) the city is in violation of its permit to operate a temporary dump site,
b) the leachate and toxins contained in the garbage pose an environmental hazard to people and animals in the area and in the watershed.

If you wish to file a similar complaint, contact the Ministry of the Environment at 1-866-MOE-TIPS (1-866-663-8477). To follow the latest events at Christie Pits Park, be sure to check out the following social media resources:

Twitter: http://twitter.com/christiepits and #TOStrike
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/steve.dalimonte?ref=name#/group.php?gid=107781841041&ref=mf
Google Groups: http://groups.google.ca/group/friendschristiepits
Web: http://www.torontopedia.ca/Parks_are_not_Dumps!, http://www.christiepits.ca/