Upending the basin: Would you explore Toronto’s sewers with a $10,000 expedition?

Many years ago I wrote a news story about a group of divers hired to vacuum a chemical spill from the bottom of the St. Clair River.

It was dangerous work. The current was fast and they had to remove insoluble contaminants skittering around in depressions and mapped out with a rope grid.

The divers were an interesting bunch. Their next job was on a deep sea oil rig. But it was the job they just came from that caught my attention: Repair and maintenance of the sewers serving Toronto.

How cool of a job is that? What must it be like to explore the plumbing of a major Great Lakes city?

Not your cup of tea? Well, then come up your own quirky adventure.  Outside Magazine says it will finance one to the tune of $10,000. The magazine’s invitation in part reads:

Examples of the kinds of audacious missions we’re looking for–taken from Outside stories–include sailing a homemade raft down the Hudson River, walking a perfectly straight line across Canada’s Prince Edward Island, and paddling a canoe from Portland, Oregon, to Portland, Maine.

I’d like to see this gig go to a Great Lakes-based adventure. It would give Echo something to write about. And if not exploring Toronto’s sewers, what would you propose?

The deadline is Friday. The application is here.

And whether you apply or not, tell me in the comments below of the Great Lakes quirky adventure you’d take if you had $10,000 to indulge in it.

One thought on “Upending the basin: Would you explore Toronto’s sewers with a $10,000 expedition?

  1. Pay to construct an extra sewer line to run the overflow pipe that normally goes to my river to City Hall. Politicians: Fund a fix, no matter how painful, or get ready to be doused with “partially treated sewage” the next time it rains.

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