Toronto waterfronts littered with 'things people flush down the toilet' as rains leave beaches unsafe to swim

Along Toronto's waterfront, debris including tampons, condoms, and wet wipes could be seen floating in Lake Ontario following Monday’s heavy rainfall – a scene environmental groups say should raise concern over the city's sewage and storm water system.

"It's just not an inviting place to see all this debris in the water and you can't see all the bacteria in the water," Madeline Buzzi with Swim Drink Fish told CTV News Toronto.

Swim Drink Fish spent Tuesday collecting water samples along the Toronto harbour, monitoring pollution levels in the lake post-storm.

"Lots of things people flush down the toilet that they probably shouldn't ends up in the water," she said.

On Monday, the city closed multiple public beachs, including Marie Curtis Park East Beach, Sunnyside Beach, Centre Island Beach and Woodbine Beaches, to swimming due to high E. coli levels.

Within the city's century-old infrastructure, some systems only have one pipe carrying both storm water and sewage. This can cause a combined sewer overflow during intense storms.

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"The problem there is, if during a heavy rainstorm those sewers fill up and if they have nowhere to go, they would ultimately back up into peoples homes, businesses and the street, so all combined sewers are designed with an overflow into the lake, stream and river," Bill Shea, director of distribution and collection with Toronto Water, told CTV News Toronto.

According to the city, between 20 to 25 percent of the sewer systems are combined.

"When we have sewage and harmful debris, in our waters it hurts the things that live in the water and hurts us in turn,” Isabel Fleisher, a monitoring coordinator with Swim Drink Fish, said.

"We really need more transparency where, when and why sewage is entering our water because we need to know so that Torontonians can better access the water and we can better protect the environment," said Fleisher.

Swim Drink Fish is calling for better monitoring of sewage and an alert system to notify residents when a combined sewer overflows into the lake.

"That will provide transparency on where, when and under what conditions combine sewer water is entering the water ," said Fleshier. "It helps the public by informing where you could potentially enter the water."

The City of Kingston has an alert system online that includes a real time map informing residents where and when an overflow occurs.

It's a measure officials in Toronto have explored, but found to be too costly.

"Our infrastructure is quite complex and it's hard to get to some of these areas where you actually might measure, so we looked at it several times in the past and we estimated to be between 10 and 20 million dollars a year to do this and set it up," said Shea.

Instead, the city has decided to spend that money improving the storm water and sewer systems.

Swim Drink Fish believes the monitoring and alert measures could help the city target problem areas to improve the infrastructure.

The city advises not to swim in the lake during and 48 hours after a heavy rainfallc

Swim Drink Fish says people need to be more mindful of what they are flushing down their drains and toilets.