Agenda reports for November

Every month the city publishes agenda for their standing committees. Within these PDF files are links to reports on each specific item. Some of these items are directly or indirectly relevant to the Don. The committees that deal with business that concerns the Don are Economic Development and Parks, Planning and Transportation, and Works.

I think it is important to read these documents becauses it helps me understand the issues that concern the Don. I also publish the links here because I think the Don Watcher readers will also find them interesting. So here are the agenda documents available for November, 2005.

Toronto Water Budget
This is a rather long and dull report but contains interesting information about future directions for Toronto Water. This department is responsible for Toronto's drinking water supply but also for waste water, and that is important to the Don because alot of waster water ends up in the river.

Taylor Massey Creek Outfall Management
This is a supplementary report to previous studies that reports on correspondence and responses to those reports. The pollution issue surrounding the TMC outfalls will continue for sometime. A couple of positive outcomes have resulted in the TMC study. Firstly, Toronto Water is expanding its outfall monitoring program to encompass the entire city, and secondly are hiring more people for ongoing monitoring. Both are worthwhile results.

Mandatory Downspout Disconnection Program
A briefing note to council from staff for this program which was instituted in 1998.

Wet Weather Flow Funds for Tree Planting
The city is committed to providing $250,000/year to community groups for tree planting projects. Trees help to reduce storm water flow by slowing rain down and retaining the moisture. The cumulative effect across the city can lead to a significant reduction.

Replacing Lost Snow Dump Capacity
This is a very interesting report that portrays the land use pressure the city is under in its ability to provide land for snow dumping. Based on the number of truck loads needed to cart away snow plowed from city streets (using Mel's storm in 2003 as a baseline), the city needs places to dump 150,000 loads of snow. Currently there are three valley sites, two of which are beside the Don. Understandably the Task Force wants them shut down. The city's response is there's nowhere else to put it. New melting technology may be the direction to go.

Chester Springs Marsh
The Task Force has requested funds from the city to provide a report on the status of the marsh. Our concern is that the marsh is not functioning in the way it was envisioned and may need some remediation work.