Dirty demolition fill illegally dumped on Steeles: The Fixer
Truckloads of dirty fill from a demolition job were dumped last spring along Steeles Ave. W., as unsuspecting drivers zipped past.

TheStar.com
Dec. 3, 2014
Jack Lakey

The wise guy who illegally dumped truckloads of dirt along a busy stretch of Steeles Ave. W. has more nerve than a toothache.

There’s no other explanation for a half-dozen large piles on the north side of Steeles, between Yonge and Bathurst Sts., as unlikely and outrageous as it may seem.

We got an email from Ian Serota outlining his frustration over the dirt piles on the boulevard in front of his condo building at 520 Steeles, west of Palm Gate Blvd.

It’s been there for seven months, “but the City of Vaughan and City of Toronto will neither help remove it or do anything to get it removed,” said Serota, who’s president of the condo board.

“They keep blaming it on not being able to find a work order,” he said, adding, “people are pretty upset. It is something I want to have some sort of answer to before my annual general meeting in mid-January.”

Serota told us by phone that part of the curb lane on westbound Steeles was closed for road work last spring, around the same time the dirt appeared. He figured one had to do with the other.

But when he contacted Toronto and Vaughan, they knew nothing about any work that might have produced the dirt, he said, and showed no interest.

We went there and soon figured out it has nothing to do with road work, and why no work orders can be found; it’s dirty fill from a demolition job that was illegally dumped.

The soil is riddled with bricks and broken foundation concrete, not what you’d find in dirt dug out of the road or a boulevard. But it’s standard stuff that must be cleaned up at a demolition site before construction begins.

Instead of paying tipping fees to properly dispose of it, whoever trucked it out of the site dumped it on the boulevard on Steeles and kept coming back with more.

Anyone who saw it happening would think it’s just construction activity. Or more likely, not think about it at all.

It’s the perfect crime.

STATUS: Toronto is responsible for the road allowance on both sides of Steeles, including the boulevard. Hector Moreno, who’s in charge of road operations in that area, said they’ll try to figure out where it came from, adding the city will have to get rid of it, but he couldn’t say when.