Crews are working to clean up a milky white substance which was seen flowing down a section of Kitchener’s Schneider Creek earlier this week.

Geoff Martin was biking home with his son along Iron Horse trail Tuesday afternoon. When coming around a bend near Borden Street, he got his first full view of the creek. That’s when he spotted the mysterious sediment flowing through the water.

“I asked my five year old if he wanted to retrace the substance and so we turned back around, followed it back up the Iron Horse Trail,” said Martin.

Martin said he followed the creek to Kent Street where he saw the substance pouring out of an outflow pipe.

“I called the region, reported the spill that night. By the time I got home the on-call supervisor had called me back.”

A city of Kitchener crew was sent out to the affected area of the creek by Tuesday evening. But the issue persisted into the next day.

“This is now [Wednesday] afternoon, there was more milky white substance in the creek,” said Martin.

Martin said the crews had set up straw bales to block the flow and create a pool so long hoses could pump the water into trucks with large tanks.

City crews set up straw bales to block the flow of the unknown substance into Schneider Creek. (Geoff Martin)

“Like four or five trucks came through and took turns backing up to the creek and sucking out a tank full and then driving away,” he said. “There was a big operation.”

In an emailed statement from the City of Kitchener, they say their sanitary and stormwater utility team is aware of the spill in Schneider Creek. They’re working with the Ministry of Environment and the Region of Waterloo to track the source of the spill.

In the meantime, the city has deployed a contractor to contain the spill and clean the affected area.