It’s shameful to see what’s happened to Taylor Massey Creek, where there’s almost as much garbage in and around it as water.

I got a note this week from Dick Winters, who reads my column regularly, about how water in the creek is sometimes a strange green colour, which he first noticed last winter.

His note included photos of the tinted water, just south of Lawrence Avenue and west of Crockford Road. The forlorn little creek, which is just a drainage ditch in that area, runs behind industrial units on Crockford.

The creek starts near Pharmacy Avenue and Highway 401 and meanders through a part of Scarborough that was mostly farmland until the 1950s but is now filled with low-rise industries and subdivisions.

Parts of the creek have been covered over, leaving just a pipe to channel water to the open areas. If it wasn’t needed for storm water runoff during heavy rainfalls, it would no doubt be entirely paved over by now

The water colour had reverted to normal when I got there Wednesday, which suggests that a business backing onto the creek is discharging pollution into it, at least occasionally.

But trash along the steep banks that descend to the creek is nothing short of appalling, as is the amount of garbage in the water itself. Even in secluded areas behind the industrial units that are hard for the public to access, people have found a way to dump a staggering amount of refuse.

Bags filled with garbage, old tires, styrofoam, renovation waste and other junk were strewn along the banks and in the water itself, while the area at the point where it runs under Lawrence was filthy with street litter.

The worst was a huge plastic tank, as big as a truck, which was suspended by trees on the west side of the creek. Given the fence that runs just above it, how the tank got there is a mystery.

My stroll along Taylor Massey left me feeling upset that a stream that once ran through farms and was filled with fish and wildlife has become a city’s wastebasket.

STATUS: Jaclyn Carlisle, a spokesperson for the city, emailed to say: “At this time, proactive litter picking on parkland has been reduced to allow for crews to be redirected to priority tasks in parks related to the maintenance and upkeep of critical infrastructure and the city’s COVID-19 response. City staff will be attending this location to address the garbage there. Residents can contact 311 to report litter or illegal dumping and city crews can be deployed to address these issues where necessary.”

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