Category Archives: Underground
WBST
The City of Toronto has 2600 storm sewer outfalls, about 80 of these are combined sewer overflows, 33 of which empty directly into Lake Ontario. While the ageing infrastructure under toronto, is slowly being replaced,untreated sewage stills overflows from these 33 combined sewers and enters the lake during heavy rains.
Retention ponds are designed to trap and settle much of the solid material carried by the stormwater as sediment. Which can contain suspended solids, nutrients, bacteria, oil and grease, trace metals, and organic contaminants such as pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). BUT… as space is limited in the downtown core, the city constructed the Western Beaches Storage Tunnel. This 4 km long tunnel intercepts stormwater and combined sewer overflow that would normally enter the lake directly and stores them in three large underground holding tanks. Where ultraviolet lights help kill bacteria in the water before releasing it slowly back into the lake.
The Strachan Ave. storage tank and pump station, the end of the line for this system is easy to miss, apart from a small mechanical room built into the side of a hill, and some metal hatches, most passerby’s have little clue of what lies beneath their feet. A couple of inches of topsoil and some concrete slabs separate them from a tank 50 metres deep and 30 metres wide.
Sizing up the mission, I have to admit- things looked bleak from the very beginning. The only way in was to rappel down through a small hatch then swing yourself towards the stairs running up the side of the tank, with nothing below you except a 70 foot drop to a watery slurry of combined sewer overflow.
It would be a challenge under normal conditions, but we were basically in the middle of an open field with no cover, and would require all the stealth we could muster up. Secretly wearing a climbing harness under your jeans kind-of-stealth. After the sun dipped below the horizon, strangePlaces volunteered to be the first to decend into the tank. Banditt and myself stayed topside on belay using a 2nd safety rope. We took no chances, things could turn to shit really fast, literally.
Photos by: strangePlaces
Tentanda Via
Check out the article Tentanda Via, originally published in the zine Infiltration by the late Ninjalicious and its easy to see why I absolutely love the steam tunnel system at York University. A rich history of exploration by former students and adventurers literally covers the walls of this infamous network. Wandering the many corridors and mechanical rooms you cannot help feeling like you’ve stumbled onto some Sci-Fi movie set.
Your senses are bombarded with a million things. Wafts of warm air, the grumble and whizzing of machinery, and like other explorations there is always a gut-wrenching feeling that you’ll find some authority figure down there- ready to chase after you at any time.
For years I’ve heard stories about the viewing port under the school swimming pool, and rooms filled with the strangest assortments of odds and ends. Although the epic nicknames given to sections of the tunnel such as “chemical corner” and “the caves” may not be entirely truthful , there is no denying the fact that for over 40 years people have seeked out these tunnels, and this spirit of urban exploration at YorkU continues on to this day.
Up in arms
The Garrison Creek Sewer is beyond a doubt Toronto’s most famous piece of underground infrastructure. While most citizens of Toronto are completely oblivious to the world that has been buried beneath their feet, Garrison Creek and its burial and evolution into a sanitary sewer is relatively well known within the public domain. Along its path are tell-tale signs of the former creek. And its construction and history are well documented.
For further reading visit.
http://humanriver.ca
http://www.lostrivers.ca
http://vanishingpoint.ca
The area we chose to enter was a small section that had been converted into an overflow pipe. The entrance manhole was about 16 feet deep, but only had stepirons for 1/3 of the way down. Rigging up a short rope we clambered the rest of the way down.
Buntzen Lake
Formerly known as Lake Beautiful, Buntzen Lake is named after the first general manager of B.C. Electric Co., Johannes Buntzen. In 1903 the Buntzen hydroelectric project was put in service by the Vancouver Power Company to provide the first hydroelectric power to Vancouver.
The system has seen expansion and upgrades over the years, but the principle of power generation has remained the same. There are two powerhouses on the shoreline of Indian Arm, they draw water from Buntzen lake via large diameter steel pipes…. BUT to keep Buntzen’s water at a sufficent level, a 3.6 km long aqueduct was cut through Eagle Mountain to draw water from the much larger Coquitlam Reservoir to the North. This tunnel is a feat of engineering in itself and it reaches a depth of 1.2 km.
It was about a 6km hike to reach the far end of the lake. Once there, I happily found out that the water flow out of the aqueduct was not a raging torrent, but a gentle trickle. So I put my camera into a drybag and swam out to the infall and entered the tunnel. Once inside it took a while for my eyes to adjust from having been in the blaring sunlight all day. The poured concrete tunnel ran inwards for only about 10 metres, and after that the tunnel changed into blasted rock. The water was freezing cold and being barefoot in swimming trunks didn’t help.
There and back again
When the opportunity came to travel across Canada by train, I immediately went for it. Several thousand kms from Toronto to Vancouver, just me a duffelbag full of clothes, and some exploration gear. Setting off from home I had no real plans except that i would be staying a couple days in Victoria . Here in sleepy Victoria and the neighbouring metropolis of Vancouver is where I devoted most of my efforts. Travelling by day on crowded city streets as a tourist, waiting patiently for the night to arrive.
