Just months ago, Steve Mann was scooping stinky garbage and hauling decomposing animal carcasses out of the Peter Street Basin.

Now, he’s swimming in it.

The University of Toronto professor has made it his mission to clean up the strange pool of lake water at the base of condos off of Queens Quay, across from HTO Park.

“The stench here was so unbearable, people didn’t even want to come near it,” said Mann. “In places, it did not even look like a lake. It looked more like a pile of garbage.”

Mann stumbled upon the basin while looking for new, accessible places to swim. He has a back injury and swam almost every day on Ontario Place’s West Island to help rehab his spine. When access was barred and the island razed for construction of the controversial Therme spa , he needed a new pla

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