The Ontario Ministry of the Environment is investigating a possible petroleum spill in Shoreacres Creek at Nelson Park.

The discovery of the unknown liquid in the creek was made by Antero Manninen, who noticed something was out of the ordinary on Monday.

A five-year resident of the neighbourhood, Manninen was on one of his regular walks with his four-year-old son through the north end of the park when he saw what appeared to be oil flowing into the creek from a storm water drain.

“We usually like to go down there and run around and look at different things, and when we got down to the creek, I noticed right away there was a film building up on the side and you could see the oil across the water flowing down,” he said.

Manninen quickly contacted the city. He said roads and park maintenance staff arrived shortly after his call to put booms and peat moss at the site.

“I found out from another local resident who walked by when we were there that this has been an ongoing issue,” he said. “She said this is not the first time this has happened before. She said she smelt oil and has seen lots of oil in the creek, especially in the wintertime.”

Manninen said city staff on site also told him this was not a unique incident.

“I have seen booms there before, but I didn’t know why they were putting them up,” he said. “He (a city employee) said it had happened before, but they haven’t been able to find out where it has been coming from and they’ve actually had to bring in a truck to siphon oil from inside that culvert.”

The local resident found the incident upsetting.

“It is more disturbing to hear this isn’t the first time this has happened,” he said.

He added that even his young son noticed something was wrong.

“He was asking why they were putting those booms in the water,” he said.

By Wednesday afternoon, five of the six-foot booms were still on site, with two in the mouth of the concrete drain, two just a few metres from the opening and one across the length of the creek a little farther downstream. There was a strong oil-like smell coming from the storm water catchment area, with the surface of the water contained by the booms having a rainbow-like appearance.

Continue to full story via InsideHalton Article: What’s in the water?.