After last month’s petroleum spill — caused by construction workers accidentally hitting a buried fuel tank in behind the Staples office supply store in northeast Leaside, near Eglinton Avenue and Leslie Street — the question remains about whether the accident could happen again.
Regarding the recent spill, while rain that day caused the fuel to quickly seep into the Don River, Constable Wendy Drummond said firefighters were able to cordon off the spill before it travelled down to the lake. Soon after, Environment Canada was called in to investigate.
According to Henry Lau, Environment Canada spokesperson, it is still not known how much fuel was in the tank and how much fuel leaked. In addition, no records could be found about the origin of the tank, although Jane Pitfield — author of Leaside — said she heard the tank dates back to between 1917 and 1919.
Paul Cabot — curator at the Canadian Air & Space Museum — said the tank likely originated from a First World War airfield on the site or a flying club that operated on the land in the 1920s. Before the Second World War, Cabot said few records were kept on underground infrastructure such as fuel tanks used for airfields or gas stations. That makes it hard to determine how many could be buried.
“Back then, nobody cared; they’d just walk away from it all,” he said. However, Cabot said because Leaside is so developed, there are likely few underground surprises left to hit.
Dan McDermott, director of Sierra Club Ontario, said a bigger worry is the area’s outdated sewage system — particularly a cracked pipe running under the Don River.
“If that thing goes, the whole river is liable to become flooded with sewage,” he said. The city is currently building a bypass to mediate the threat.
At present, Lau said cleanup efforts were still continuing.
