Cleanup of illegally dumped tires in Etobicoke will take days, city says

The City of Toronto is working to clean up hundreds of tires illegally dumped on public land near Mimico Creek in Etobicoke.

The tires, scattered and stacked under the Skyway Avenue bridge, have been there for months, according to Roy Chan, general manager of the nearby Royal Woodbine Golf Club.

Chan said his employees alerted the city to the tires in February, but the number of them has grown since.

Miriam Diamond, a professor at the University of Toronto's school of the environment, said illegally dumping tires is something people should not be doing.

"Tires do contain some compounds that are toxic, that leach into the water over time," she said. "All these tire particles are just one of many stresses affecting the few fish that can survive in an urban creek like Mimico Creek"

Meanwhile, Chan hopes the city can find out who did it.

"It's just littering. It's an environmental disaster. We don't want to see garbage thrown around," he said.

Because of the sheer volume of tires, the cleanup will take days, a city spokesperson said in an email. The city plans to store the tires until they can be recycled.

Also investigating spill in creek

The spill comes as the city looks into another spill, this one in Etobicoke Creek.

In a statement issued on Friday, the city said an "oil-like substance" had spilled and efforts were continuing to clean the creek.

In August, wildlife were also killed in a significant spill in Mimico Creek that was the result of an industrial fire.

"We know that all urbanized streams really suffer," Diamond said.

"It's very hard for little critters and fish to survive in an urban creek, because there's just ongoing toxic inputs."