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Emergency crews are responding to a diesel spill in Etobicoke’s Mimico Creek that happened Sunday, the city of Toronto says.
City spokesperson Liza Ballantyne said crews deployed absorbent booms — floating tubes that trap and soak in diesel — to help contain the spill.
“We are working closely with the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) on cleanup efforts and an investigation into the source and cause,” she said in a statement Sunday.
The diesel spill is located near Legion Road and Manitoba Street, Ballantyne added.
Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks spokesperson Lindsay Davidson said ministry personnel assessed the creek for environmental impacts on Sunday evening after Toronto Fire informed them of an oily material.
“No impacts to fish or aquatic wildlife have been observed,” Davidson told CBC Toronto in a statement Monday.
Source not yet identified: ministry
The spill appears to be a “one-time release from material captured in the storm sewer system, believed to be weathered diesel fuel,” she added. The source has not yet been identified.
Sunday’s spill comes nearly three years after another chemical spill in the same area.
In August 2023, a massive industrial fire at chemical distribution company Brenntag Canada led to a spill of oily sludge into Mimico Creek and Humber Creek. It killed fish, birds and mammals with cleanup efforts continuing for months afterwards.
More than 100 firefighters were required to put out the six-alarm blaze, which poured thick black smoke into the air for nearly 12 hours. At the time, the Toronto Wildlife Centre said the spill affected 112 birds.
Tony Morris, conservation policy and campaigns director at Ontario Nature, said Sunday’s spill is also bound to affect the ecosystem by Mimico Creek.
“Urban waterways are already very stressed from pollutants they get from runoff, flash flooding events and high salt levels,” he told CBC Toronto Monday. “Spills of any sort of hydrocarbons, oils, are particularly devastating for wildlife populations.”
Tony Morris, conservation policy and campaigns director at Ontario Nature, said Sunday’s spill is also bound to affect the ecosystem by Mimico Creek. (Sue Goodspeed/CBC)
The spill can not only kill animals, but lead to many of them requiring rehabilitation through wildlife rescue organizations, Morris says.
“It, particularly for birds, coats their feathers,” he said. “It really is devastating for a lot of species and potentially the food that they eat, the vegetation, again, impacting all levels of the food chain.”
According to the ministry, Toronto Water established containment measures at the outfall and downstream and is monitoring to ensure the situation is stabilized.
Effects depend on amount spilled, time in ecosystem: expert
University of Toronto environmental professor Miriam Diamond says the news of the spill is “disturbing,” but effects on ecology will depend largely on how much oil was spilled and how long it stays in the ecosystem.
“Mimico Creek is highly urbanized … It’s situated within both industrial [and] residential locations,” she told CBC Toronto Monday. “I think that the boom will be relatively effective at getting the oil on the top on the surface accumulated.”
Michael Janetakes is the president of Friends of Humber Bay Park, which is a volunteer-led nonprofit that cleans up streams, tests water quality and hosts nature walks in the community. He says the latest spill is a big concern for the organization.
“We have a number of nesting birds and birds feeding along the this area,” Janetakes told CBC Toronto Monday. “This is a migratory route for wildlife and we try to protect it as much as possible.”
“This is an ongoing problem industry along waterways … [the] industry needs to be accountable for looking after wildlife and the nature around them.”
For the community, the creek is more than just a body of water, he added.
“People come here to relax and this is a place for people to wind down and enjoy part of the city,” he said. “We’re very fortunate.”