Paul Moloney Urban Affairs Reporter

The amount of soil from tunneling the Eglinton Crosstown transit line could fill the Rogers Centre to the roof.

Until recently, the project loomed as another headache for more than 900 residents who have been fighting plans for trucks to deliver commercial fill to their nearby communities from Toronto construction sites over the next 10 years.

But Toronto is studying another option using the soil instead to build islands at the mouth of the Humber River, the same way the Leslie St. spit was built out of soil from downtown construction projects 40 years ago.

The citys water department proposed building the archipelago to deflect Humber River water away from Sunnyside Beach to make it consistently safe for swimming.

It would require up to 2 million cubic metres of soil. A staff report suggested Eglinton Crosstown could supply 800,000 cubic metres.

The transit projects environmental assessment estimates a total of 1.8 million cubic metres of excavated soil would be available. Thats more than enough to fill the Rogers Centre, at 1.6 million cubic metres.

Keeping it in the city would be a relief to Lakeridge Citizens for Clean Water said member Ian McLaurin, who has been fighting a site near his Port Perry home.

Thats not a bad spot for it, McLaurin said of the proposed location of the mouth of the Humber. We dont want it up here.

Contamination of the soil from industrial pollutants is a concern, McLaurin said. So is the noise and dust of dump trucks, including tailgate banging after dumping a load.

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