Patrons of the Kingslake Plaza in Kingston’s north end were in for a bit of a shock on Thursday morning, as a mysterious black sludge has covered most of the shopping centre’s parking lot.
It even caught the City of Kingston off-guard. Its manager of environmental projects says he found out about the situation through social media posts.
“The material appears to be a fine black powdery substance mixed in with the snow and the ice,” Brodie Richmond said.
“There doesn’t appear to be any odour with it or sheen associated with it. We’re hoping to get some more answers back following the results of sampling.”
City workers, independent contractors and even the Ministry of the Environment were all on hand trying to piece together the black sludge mystery. Even Knightstone Capital Management, the company that owns the Kingslake Plaza, isn’t sure what the mysterious substance is.
“We are currently co-operating with the authorities investigating this condition, and have engaged environmental consultants to both identify the substance and source, and to co-ordinate any necessary remediation work,” Danny Roth, spokesperson for Knightstone said in a statement to CKWS TV.
As of now, no one seems to know what the substance is or if it’s toxic but crews worked throughout the day to remove it as quickly as possible.
Samples taken from the parking lot will be sent away for testing. So for now, the black sludge mystery remains unsolved.
- Invasive strep: ‘Don’t wait’ to seek care, N.S. woman warns on long road to recovery
- Ontario First Nation declares state of emergency amid skyrocketing benzene levels
- T. Rex an intelligent tool-user and culture-builder? Not so fast, says new U of A research
- Do Canadians have an appetite for electric vehicles? Experts are divided
Comments