The owner of a furniture store is blaming World Youth Day organizers for a blanket of raw sewage on the floor of his warehouse.

Garret de Boer, owner of Idomo Furniture discovered litres of raw sewage covering the floor of his North York warehouse, which is also home to the retailer's department store. The property sits just opposite Downsview Lands the site of Sunday's Papal mass, which attracted 800,000.

The raw sewage covers most of the basement of the large store and in some places is 10 centimetres deep.

Mr. de Boer suggested that a company hired by WYD organizers to provide portable toilets improperly dumped their contents into the city's sewer system causing sewage to back up into his nearby system.

The damage to merchandise in his basement is extensive, he added, and may lead to a loss of millions.

"We're talking about destroyed carpets and furniture just covered in raw sewage," said Mr. de Boer, whose television advertisements and long beard have made him something of a local celebrity.

"It's unfortunate World Youth Day was a great event that made the city millions but its going to cost us."

Methane fumes have pervaded all corners of the large store, he said. It has forced an immediate and indefinite closing.

WYD organizers are now looking into Mr. de Boer's allegations.

“We do feel very sorry for the man and the damage to his business,” Paul Kilbertus told globeandmail.com Monday. “We are now talking to our operations people and we don't know at this point what happened.”

Mr. Kilbertus suggests that its entirely possible that WYD contractors did dispose of the refuse properly but that Sunday's heavy rains and the size of the massive gathering may have overwhelmed the municipal sewage system. It's a system, said Mr. Kilbertus, that may have been unable to cope with that double stress.