Skip to content

Island dump

THUNDER BAY – John Woodcock is starting to see McKellar Island transform into a dump.
345839_635391233067660533
John Woodcock points out one of the primary clusters of garbage that has been dumped on McKellar Island's Baffin Street. (Matt Vis, tbnewswatch.com)

THUNDER BAY – John Woodcock is starting to see McKellar Island transform into a dump.

“It’s very disappointing because we’re trying to get an outdoor recreation site going here involving a bit of research into birds,” Woodcock said. “This is the introduction to the people I bring here. This is what they see, a forest that’s littered with garbage blowing in from the side of the road.”

Over the past year the volunteer coordinator for the McKellar Island Bird Observatory has seen the amount of trash discarded along Baffin Street continue to pile up.

New garbage now shows up on a weekly basis.

The two primary dumping locations are where former Thunder Bay Terminals access roads off Baffin Street are blocked by gates.

There are clusters of waste, with a lot of discarded building supplies. There are also discarded appliances, broken furniture and household garbage.

These are things that belong in the John Street landfill, Woodcock said.

However, while much of the garbage is clustered at the two sites, there is still plenty of trash visible along the entire road.

A quick look in the ditches on the side of the road yields many old garbage bags.

“The whole roadside is littered. It would be many dump truck loads of material to remove,” he said.

Woodcock said he initially contacted the Thunder Bay Police Service, which directed him to the city’s bylaw department.
There haven’t been any results since he contacted them.

“I contacted them and they said there wasn’t much they could do unless you can identify who dumped the garbage,” Woodcock said. “I haven’t seen any action.”

Messages to the acting manager of the city’s licensing and enforcement division by tbnewswatch.com were not returned as of early Monday afternoon.





push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks