Two women vow to continue their floating protest on the waters of Hamilton Harbour until they get answers from the city about a tide of hazardous filth that has coated the shoreline next to the Waterfront Trail.

Kristen Villebrun and her friend, Wendy Bush, have been camped out on a small raft just off the shore about halfway between the Bayfront Park end of the trail and the Thomas B. McQuesten High Level Bridge since approximately 5 p.m. Saturday.

In late October, Villebrun and others began constructing a series of stone inukshuks along the trail to honour Canada's missing and murdered aboriginal women. Villebrun, 40, is an Oji-Cree woman.

[Inukshuk-building movement spreads across Hamilton]

She said when she first attempted to gather rocks to build her inukshuks, she noticed the shore was littered with used syringes, tampons and their applicators, plastic caps, condoms and feces.

When she called a city official, she was told there had been a spill of hazardous material from the sewage treatment plant at Woodward Avenue, which suggests the material had floated more than eight kilometres to the west from the Windermere basin.

Disgusted by the pollution and what they believed to be the city's inaction, Villebrun and Bush brought a small floating raft and some blankets late Saturday afternoon and decided they wouldn't leave until they got some answers.

The pair is also fasting, drinking only liquids.

"This is unacceptable," said Villebrun. "We're going to stay out here until we hear where this came from, what the source is and how they're going to clean it up in a timely manner.

"They've known about it since the 29th of October and I think that's enough time to get a plan set to clean it up."

The women said they're concerned for the safety of children and pets who might wander off the paved path.

"What happened to Hamilton being the best place to raise a child?" asked Bush. "There's needles down here, there's hundreds and thousands of Tampax applicators."

On Sunday evening, the city announced that in response to the women's concerns, the Waterfront Trail is now closed from the Bayfront Park boat launch to the high level bridge for cleanup. It is expected to reopen by Friday.

"The cleanup hasn't actually started yet but due to the type of waste, the trail is closed as a safety precaution," city spokesperson Kelly Anderson stated late Sunday.

She said staff is investigating the source of the waste.

Villebrun said she spoke briefly with city officials Sunday evening but vowed that the protest would continue until they actually witnessed the debris being cleaned up.

Ward 1 Coun. Aidan Johnson visited them Sunday afternoon and promised to help get answers. He was shocked by what he witnessed.

"It's disgusting," he said. "It's worse than I realized. There are used tampons, syringes, condoms and other forms of filth in layers all along the shoreline.

"Obviously a team that has some kind of expertise in biohazard cleanup needs to be tasked with the cleanup."

The women told Johnson there is similar hazardous contamination littering the shore of Princess Point further to the west.

Johnson said a quick examination of the shore suggested to him the material may have been the result of more than one spill.

"It looks to me like there are layers of debris. There's like an archeological phenomenon going on of layers."

Police have been checking in periodically with the women to ensure they remain safe. At one point, a police officer brought two life vests for them as a precaution.

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Trail users have been stopping by to offer encouragement and one woman donated a case of bottled water and a container of coffee.

- Sewage in Hamilton harbour came from late October storm

- Waterfront Trail reopens after pollution scare; city is flush with prevention advice