Stinky mess in Cootes Paradise is algae, not sewage, City of Hamilton says
Wayne Arnold's first - and possibly last - paddle in Cootes Paradise ended prematurely Tuesday after he found himself surrounded by sticky, foul-smelling clumps of brown algae.
Or at least he is very much hoping it was algae.
The Burlington resident arrived at the popular Princess Point boat-launching area to find the dock surrounded by a floating mess" of stinky green and brown goop.
I considered leaving right then," said Arnold, who admitted he couldn't help thinking about the four-year sewage spill into Chedoke Creek that ended in 2018. The creek empties into the marsh near the boat launch.
Instead, Arnold walked around the point and launched at a cleaner-looking spot. But there were just clumps of it everywhere," he said after abandoning a short-lived paddle. I don't think I'll be back."
The city took precautionary" samples of the stinky goo Tuesday - you could smell the rotting spinachlike odour from the Princess Point parking lot - after residents started complaining, said Hamilton water director Andrew Grice.
But Grice said Tuesday preliminary" findings suggest the multicoloured mess is dead and rotting algae" - not sewage from a recent or ongoing spill.
That was the big fear for several kayakers The Spectator watched abandon paddling plans Tuesday.
Complaints about a possible sewage spill even made their way to NDP west Hamilton MPP Sandy Shaw, who vowed on Twitter to follow up with the provincial Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks.
The ministry told The Spectator late Tuesday it believes the mess to be green algae.
Sewage does occasionally overflow into Chedoke Creek and the marsh when storms overwhelm combined sewers in the area - but the last such overflow happened in late March, said Grice.
Still, Grice said he is not surprised alarm bells went off" for residents, given the well-publicized spill history in the creek - and how much the bubbly brown goo looks and smells like poo. Regardless, the city does not recommend touching the mess, or the water near the outlet from Chedoke Creek into Cootes.
The Royal Botanical Gardens, which owns and works to rehabilitate the marsh, also took a closer look at the goopy mess on Tuesday.
It smells awful, but it's decaying algae ... on a humongous scale," said manager of natural lands Tys Theijsmeijer, who noted the bubbling" effect is from gas released during decomposition.
He argued you can draw a link, however, between past sewage spills and the bubbling, bloated mess of algae.
The four-year, 24-billion-litre sewage spill into Chedoke helped kill off most remaining native plant life still struggling to survive where the urban creek hits the marsh, Theijsmeijer said. Algae, by contrast, thrives on the nutrient bonanza in sewage.
Exceptionally low water conditions this year are also making it easier for new algae to grow - and more likely for old algae to be stirred up to visibly decay on the surface.
By coincidence, work on a long-term pollution solution for the sewage-soaked marsh was also visible Tuesday.
The province ordered Hamilton late last year to dredge sewage-spill sludge from Chedoke Creek.
A consulting team hired by the city could be seen collecting sediment samples from a boat along the creek Tuesday ahead of a vacuum-dredging cleanup that may not start until next year.
Matthew Van Dongen is a Hamilton-based reporter covering transportation for The Spectator. Reach him via email: mvandongen@thespec.com