ABSTRACT
Toxic Topography Aerial view of Love Canal (New York), the site that spawned the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) in the 1980s, better known as the Superfund. Despite the abandoned lots and paved-over properties surrounding the fenced-in landfill, the site was de-listed by the
U.S. EPA from the Superfund in 2004 after 20 years and 200 million dollars worth of demolition, including remediation, and encapsulation. Source: Google Earth, Image ©2014 DigitalGlobe (top) and Love Canal, Niagara Falls, New York, 1986 (detail), from Waste Land. Photo courtesy of David T. Hanson (bottom)
Constructed Ecology The crenellated jetty of the Leslie Street Spit, which projects 5 kilometers southward from the shoreline of Lake Ontario, near downtown Toronto. Landfilling operations are still active on the eastern half of the headland, while the western half is used for recreational and ecological park use. Below, the origins of the spit in 1964 as the fire dump where liquid effluents where set on fire on the edge of the shoreline within the vicinity of 400-hectare industrial area of the Portlands. Photos: Pierre Bélanger, 2004 and City of Toronto Archives, 1964
> Incidental Landscape Sequence of accumulation and transformation of the Leslie Street Spit over the past forty years, showing the most recent access system and planning process by Field Operations/James Corner. Diagram: OPSYS/Dave Christensen
timelines
< Constructed Ground Historical development and pre-settlement patterns of shorelines and land building during the past two hundred years of cities across the Great Lakes, including Milwaukee, Detroit, and Chicago. Diagram: OPSYS/Dave Christensen
Demobilization, Dezoning, and Disurbanization An evacuated area of Ward 3 in the former steel city of Youngstown, Ohio. The decentralized pattern results from subtracted layers of infrastructure-including buildings, lamp standards, power lines, sewer connections, sidewalks, and entire streets-which have been removed as a result of property abandonment, bankruptcies, foreclosures, and other fiscal burdens. In exchange for back taxes, land stewardship and property upkeep is provided by neighbouring residents. Overall,
the 45 to 75% reduction in stormwater runoff and sewage loading, coupled with the increase in permeable surfaces, results in a significantly lower infrastructure maintenance portfolio for the Department of Public Works. The area was formerly zoned as R1.0-1.5 and currently being rezoned for a range of more productive land uses. Detail on following page. Photo: Digital Globe, 2008. Diagram: OPSYS/Hoda Matar
Great Lakes Watershed The 43 Areas of Concern (AOC’s) in the watershed region of the Great Lakes, jointly designated by the USCanada Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (Annex 2 of the 1987 Protocol). These areas are defined by the International Joint Commission as “severely degraded geographic areas that fail to meet the general
or specific objectives of the agreement where such failures have caused or are likely to cause impairment of beneficial use of the area’s ability to support aquatic life.” The U.S. and Canadian governments have identified 43 areas; 26 in U.S. waters, 17 in Canadian waters and 5 are shared between the US and Canada on connecting river systems. Diagram: OPSYS/Dave Christensen
Landscape of Disassembly The sorting, shredding, bundling, and melting operations at Triple M Metal in Brampton, Ontario, one of North America’s largest, most modern recyclers of ferrous and non-ferrous metals. The ISO 9001/14001-certified facility handles more than 2.5 million tons of scrap every year, reprocessed for mills and foundries on the international commodity exchange markets. Recycled material currently accounts for about 40 percent of the world’s steel production. It requires 75 percent less energy than the processing of iron ore and its waste emissions are nearly 90 percent lower. Photo: Pierre Bélanger and Jacqueline Urbano
Greenhouse Effect Aerial view of Leamington, Ontario, the greenhouse capital of North America. Due to highly fertile soils, increasingly warm temperatures, and abundance of freshwater, the region has the highest rate of greenhouse start-ups in Canada, almost doubling their production annually. Located on the 42nd Parallel, tender fruits, vine-ripened vegetables, and specialty flowers are cultivated in controlled hydroponic conditions limiting pesticide inputs and runoff into nearby Lake Erie. Representing $1 billion in farm gate value, Leamington’s greenhouse acreage is larger than the entire U.S. greenhouse industry combined. Photo: Google Earth, Image ©2014 DigitalGlobe
Carbohydrate Matter Fresh sludge delivered from a wastewater treatment plant in Niagara, temporarily placed for storage prior to the de-watering and de-nitrification processes. The resulting carbohydrate-and protein-rich matter is reused as organic fertilizer for farm fields and an organic additive for composting facilities. As the single most important contributor to nutrient overloading in the waters of the Great Lakes, more than 90 billion liters of combined sewer overflow is discharged from urban, suburban, and rural areas into the Great Lakes every year. Photo: Pierre Bélanger
Patterns of Diversion Flows of contaminated soils from brownfields and organic solids from landfills in Hamilton, Ontario, redirected to new soil remediation and composting facilities. Formerly the largest processor of steel and iron in Canada and one of the most heavily polluted inland ports in North America, the 2,150-hectare embayment of the Hamilton Harbour is now the site of a major remediation action plan under pressure of its rapidly diversifying economy to clean its polluted waters and contaminated sediments using new discharge management systems and sedimentation decontamination technologies. Diagram: OPSYS/Rick Hyppolite
Landscape of Logistics CN intermodal shipping terminal showing the shipping yards of retail and automotive giant Canadian Tire, located on the outskirts of the Greater Toronto area, in Brampton, a major distribution location with access to highways 401 and 407 for eastbound and westbound, rail-to-truck feeder service between Toronto and Montreal. Photo: Pierre Bélanger and Jacqueline Urbano
