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