Toronto’s trash-filled basin gets a dramatic lakeside revival

The Peter Street Pond in Toronto was dirty and unused. The large concrete pond is located between the condominiums and shops, facing the Lake Ontario waterfront. It was filled with lake water but clogged with city trash.

Professor Steve Mann of the University of Toronto and his students saw the potential of the urban lagoon. They spent three years cleaning up the mess and turned it into a place where Mann is happy to swim from time to time.

Mann told the BBC he had measured E.coli levels in the pool and said his samples were low enough to allow safe swimming.

However, in a statement to the BBC, Toronto Public Health said the Peter Street Pond was not a designated swimming area and that “without regular testing, TPH cannot assess the safety of the water and therefore does not recommend swimming in this area.”

Video by Alex Foster