Coatsworth Cut may get cleaner
Spokesperson Kate Jordan confirmed that Environment Minister John Gerretson has rejected three requests for a bump-up on the Class Environmental Assessment on the project, meaning the city is in a position to proceed with the project and will only have to go back to the province for any permission.
The project is a complex one, centred around the installation of a long pipe that will carry outflow from the treatment plant into deep water in Lake Ontario. Currently the aging combined sewer infrastructure dumps raw sewage into the inlet after heavy rainstorms like those Toronto experienced throughout the month of July, in particular on July 8.
In addition to sending that overflow into deeper water, it will be disinfected at the Ashbridges Bay sewage plant using ultraviolet light.
That will lead to a considerably cleaner Coatsworth Cut and will be combined with a plan to naturalize parts of the inlet, to create a natural filtering system.
City water staff wouldn't discuss any aspect of the project until paperwork from the ministry arrived. But Ward 32 (Beaches-East York) Councillor Sandra Bussin said she hoped the project would help deal with basement flooding issues up the line - specifically in seven areas in the Dundas Street East and Greenwood Avenue neighbourhood.
"It's very interesting," she said. "There are seven areas up around Dundas that needed improvements. They got captured in that. But now I have to push even that. That was the No. 1 project of the city. I just want to see it go ahead as soon as possible."
