On June 23, heavy rains triggered an overflow of untreated water from the collection pond at Port Hope Long-Term Waste Management Facility.There was also an overflow from the catch basin at the Port Granby Waste Management Facility.According to the Port Hope Area Initiative (PHAI)—the group responsible for the management of nuclear waste for both communities—both overflows have since been contained, but untreated water did make its way into Lake Ontario.Both sites store low-level radioactive waste.…

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KINGSTON — Today the City of Kingston along with their project partners officially broke ground on the redevelopment of Breakwater Park, a part of the Kingston Waterfront Master Plan.The W. Garfield Weston Foundation generously provided a $500,000 donation to Swim Drink Fish Canada to support renovations, that will include: a new park promenade, a pedestrian bridge, pier upgrades, steps and seating, shoreline works – including water access – landscaping and tree planting.With another $1 million…

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 Toronto, Ontario, June 26, 2017 — Heading to the beach this holiday weekend? Beach goers can access even better beach and water quality information, including service in 3 languages, with the launch of Swim Guide’s 3rd version of the iOS app: Swim Guide 3.1With over a million users to date, Swim Guide 3.1 is even better at helping people find great places to swim, and keeping  them informed of the latest water quality monitoring results…

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Sewage piles up near the mouth of the Humber River. July, 2013. Photo by Lake Ontario Waterkeeper. In July of 2014, Waterkeeper filed a request to the province to bring sewage bypass alerts to Toronto. The city notifies the Ministry of Environment every time a wastewater treatment plant bypasses, but those alerts are not made public.Fast forward three years later and Toronto, as of this month, is finally sending out public notifications for bypasses. The city…

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The Lit Fest, scheduled to take place on Saturday, June 24 at Brophy's Point on Wolfe Island, has been cancelled due to weather and unforeseen circumstances.Tonight's Music Showcase is carrying on as planned.The Lit Fest is part of the Kingston & Wolfe Island Culture Festival, which begins June 23 and carries right through to August 12. Please visit the Kingston & Wolfe Island Culture Festival page for a list of all scheduled events. 

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Last night the City of Kingston unanimously approved a resolution to honour Gord Downie by naming the deep water swimming pier in the new Breakwater Park redevelopment The Gord Edgar Downie Pier.Most know Gord as a musician and member of The Tragically Hip, the Kingston band that created the quintessential Canadian soundtrack. However, Gord has also been a tireless champion and dedicated steward of Lake Ontario as a supporter and Board member of Lake Ontario Waterkeeper. Gord…

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Photo: Lake Ontario Waterkeeper We’re excited to announce our summer partnership with Ausmosis.If you’re at all familiar with the Lake Ontario social scene - it won’t surprise you to hear that the Lake is a hot spot for surfing  - year round! With so much time spent on the water, surfers are frequently the first to show their support - and lend a hand -  for a swimmable, drinkable, fishable Lake Ontario. That’s just the…

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Map showing route of proposed Eastern Mainline pipe. Green represents existing pipeline, red indicates new Mainline construction and route. Lake Ontario Waterkeeper is launching an interactive map of TransCanada’s proposed Eastern Mainline pipeline route.The Eastern Mainline project involves approximately 250 km of newly-build natural gas pipeline running from Markham, ON to Iroquois, ON. The pipeline will be 36 inches in diameter and require nine compressor units at five existing stations along its route, as well…

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Paddlefest 2017, just before kick-off. Waterkeeper's booth is on the far left. Photo by Matt Flowers. This past weekend Lake Ontario Waterkeeper attended MEC Toronto Paddlefest 2017 at Sunnyside Beach. We had the chance to speak to recreational water users about water quality and condition of not just Lake Ontario, but water bodies across the country. The more we talked with people at our booth about water quality, the more they wanted to help do something about…

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It’s taken 16 years of building legal cases and water literacy tools for us to uncover the secret ingredient to restoring our Great Lakes.

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