A cleanup effort is underway in a north Scarborough neighbourhood after a watermain break caused a large spill of discoloured water into Highland Creek, raising questions among some community members.
A video briefly posted on a Toronto Reddit page Tuesday morning appeared to show a white substance quickly pouring into Highland Creek just south of Finch Avenue East, east of Brimley Road.
“What is turning the creek white?” the user asked, prompting several responses encouraging a report to be filed with the City of Toronto as soon as possible before moderators removed the post.
When CityNews visited the site Tuesday afternoon, City crews put up a few booms to try to slow or stop the discharge of discoloured water from going downstream. However, it appeared those efforts did not pay off as half a kilometre south at Iroquois Park the murky water pooled along the creek.
CityNews first contacted Toronto officials on Tuesday to ask about the situation in the Scarborough neighbourhood.
In a statement issued by Toronto Water’s director of environment and emergency planning Tuesday evening, Liza Ballantyne said the watermain break happened at 1571 Sandhurst Circle, which is the address for Woodside Square Mall. The edge of the mall property is around 250 metres east of where the water discharge happened.
“City staff have provided direction to the property owner and contractor on the steps required to safely manage City infrastructure cleanup following completion of the repair. The property owner has also been advised to contact the (Ontario) Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Park for direction on Highland Creek clean up requirements,” she wrote.
“We recognize the disruption this situation is causing for nearby residents and thank them for their patience as work continues to address the issue and restore normal conditions as quickly as possible.”
When asked about the directions and the associated timeframes given to the property owner, Ballantyne said on Wednesday that would fall to the Ontario government. It was also unclear what, if any, potential water quality testing would be carried out. Inquiries to the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks from CityNews went unanswered as of Wednesday evening.
As for what inevitably made it into Highland Creek from the City’s perspective, it wasn’t immediately clear but she said the municipality was “not aware of any harmful substances being discharged.”
CityNews contacted Woodside Square representatives early Wednesday to ask about the incident. No one was available for an on-camera interview, but a statement sent to CityNews said the watermain break happened on Tuesday and that crews were called in immediately. They said the issue was fixed at around 3 a.m. on Wednesday.
“Based on the information available to us, the release consisted of water along with naturally occurring soil and sediment displaced by the break,” the statement said.
“We have arranged for clean-up of the affected area and are working cooperatively with the City of Toronto. We appreciate the patience of our tenants, customers and neighbours.”
Advocates stress ongoing need for water protections in Scarborough and across Ontario, transparency
With unrelated spills on other parts of Highland Creek as well as other watersheds in the Greater Toronto Area, advocates speaking generally about the environment beyond Tuesday’s incident said the need for protections and transparency remain vital.
Sarah Buchanan, a director of public campaigns with the advocacy group Toronto Environmental Alliance (TEA), said dense urban settings can intensify pressures facing the environment.
“There’s a huge amount of stress not only on our ravines and creeks in Toronto broadly, but on this particular creek, and it does make me wonder what’s happening and makes me think about the impact on the local ecosystems and on the people who you know walk through this area quite a bit,” she told CityNews.
“If your dog is potentially swimming in that creek, or you are potentially swimming in Lake Ontario, you should know what you’re dealing with.”
Buchanan said after years of advocacy, the City of Toronto enacted reporting mechanisms that can help with tracking. As an example, she cited the ChemTRAC program that follows when certain chemicals are discharged into the air.
Ashley Wallis, an associate director with the legal advocacy group Environmental Defence Canada, stressed in Ontario, polluters are legally required to inform the province when a discharge occurs and pay cleanup costs. If a polluter refuses, Wallis said the provincial government can order a person or company to do the cleanup and ultimately carry out the work at the polluter’s expense.
“Generally speaking, lots of stuff comes off of urban areas, which is problematic. Even things like road salts … that does end up flushing into our storm drains and eventually into our lakes and rivers where it can have a really negative impact on fish species and other organisms that live there,” she said.
“Something doesn’t have to be toxic with a capital T in order to have a negative impact on the fish and other wildlife that inhabit our streams and lakes.”
Wallis echoed the need for sharing information with the public.
“Transparency is definitely an area where more can be done,” she said while noting reporting to municipalities is just as important as the provincial government.
“Presumably, there’s supposed to be signage (warning a spill occurred) and other things, especially if the area shouldn’t be interacted with by members of the public. But there isn’t really a central repository where there’s easily available information about where a spill might have happened.”
Buchanan said the polluter-pay principle, which is currently enshrined in Ontario law, is an important one to uphold. Both she and Wallis expressed concerns about proposed change contained in Bill 140, the Building Ontario Faster Act 2026, that could potentially affect the current regime governing polluters, spill reporting, and the ability for residents to weigh in on environmental issues through the Environmental Bill of Rights. Bill 140 is currently making its way through the Ontario legislature.
Meanwhile, if anyone in Ontario encounters a suspicious spill or discharged, officials urged those instances to be reported through the provincial Spills Action Centre (1-800-268-6060) as well as the local municipality.
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