The Peel Water Story
A W AT E R C U R R I C U L U M R E S O U R C E F O R P E E L S C H O O L S
What we do on the land is mirrored in the water.
T H E P E E L W AT E R S T O R Y | A W AT E R C U R R I C U L U M R E S O U R C E F O R P E E L S C H O O L S
Copyright © The Regional Municipality of Peel, 2006
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any
form without the written permission of the Regional Municipality of Peel,
except brief quotations for review purposes.
The Region of Peel would like to acknowledge the Peel Water Story
Organizing Committee.
Published in Canada by the Regional Municipality of Peel
10 Peel Centre Drive
Brampton, ON L6T 4B9
Printed on Rolland Enviro 100, 100% recycled paper, Environmental
Choice Certified, Processed Chlorine Free paper.
Typeset using Minion 11pt and Georgia 24pt
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
The Peel water story : a water curriculum resource for Peel schools.
Accompanied by a CD-ROM.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-920646-16-6
1. Water-supply—Ontario—Peel (Regional municipality)—
Study and teaching (Secondary) 2. Watershed ecology—Ontario—
Peel (Regional municipality)—Study and teaching (Secondary)
I. Peel (Ont. : Regional municipality)
QH106.2.O5P44 2006
363.6’1’09713535
Damian MacSeáin, Committee Chair, Region of Peel
Sangeetah Pabla, Region of Peel
Lesley Radman, Region of Peel
Dave Green, Toronto and Region Conservation Authority
Gary Mascola, Peel District School Board
Clare O’Connor, Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board
Thanks go out to the teachers who field tested this resource, as well as all
the other individuals and organizations who partnered in the creation of
the Peel Water Story.
Howard Ackroyd, Bill Anderson, Clive Dobson, Wes Durie, Bill Evans,
Stephanie Grant, Chuck Hammill, Arthur P. Kennedy, Ian Kerr-Wilson,
Dorothy Kew, Bill Lester, Amie Miles, Elvis Oliveira, Norman Potts,
Marco Romano, Woodland Cultural Centre.
Caledon Countryside Alliance, Citizen’s Environment Watch, Dufferin-Peel
Catholic District School Board, Jake Thomas Learning Centre, Learning for
a Sustainable Future, Mississauga Heritage Foundation, Mississaugas of the
New Credit First Nation, Peel Environmental Network, Peel District School
Board, Peel Heritage Complex, Peel Public Works Resource Centre,
Streetsville Historical Society.
C2005-907745-X
Produced by Region of Peel Communications Services with Public Education
and Outreach, Peel Public Works.
Table of Contents
List of Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Commissioner’s Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
How to Use this Resource . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
I.
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
A. Gulliver in Lilliput:
Experiential Education and Childhood. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2. Humber River Watershed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3. Etobicoke & Mimico Creek Watersheds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4. Peel’s Wetlands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
5. The Bog, the Badlands, and the Big Kettle Lake . . . . . . . . . . 26
III. HUMAN CYCLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
A. First Nations in Peel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
1. Ongwehonwe - The Iroquoian Peoples. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2. Anishinabeg - The Mississauga Ojibwa People . . . . . . . . . . . 30
B. Peel’s Big Water Ideas & The Ontario Curriculum . . . . . . . 12
II. NATURAL CYCLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
A. Peel's Hydrogeologic History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1. Tropical Peel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
a. The Niagara Escarpment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2. Arctic Peel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3. Watershed Genesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
a. The Oak Ridges Moraine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
b. Ancient Lake Iroquois - Shoreline and Plain. . . . . . . . . . 17
B. Peel's Life Zones - Climate and Biodiversity. . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
1. The Butterfly Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
C. The Hydrologic Cycle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
1. Water Cycle Thinking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2. Water Cycle Sensing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
D. Peel's Watersheds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
1. Credit River Watershed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
B. First Nations and European Contact in Peel. . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
1. Across the Waters – Immigration and Treaties. . . . . . . . . . . 33
a. The Needs of Newcomers in Backwater Canada . . . . . . 35
C. Settling Peel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
1. Water Transportation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
2. "TIMBER !" –Primeval Deforestation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
a. The Business of Wood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3. Urbanization, Public Works and Public Health . . . . . . . . . . 42
a. Water Supply in Peel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
(1) Simply Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
(2) Muddying the Waters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
(3) Municipal Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
b. Sewage Happens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
c. Public Health and Waterborne Disease . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
(1) Boards of Health in Peel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
4. Three Peel Communities, in
Three Municipalities, on Three Watersheds . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
a. Water Power in Streetsville on the Credit . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
T H E P E E L W AT E R S T O R Y | A W AT E R C U R R I C U L U M R E S O U R C E F O R P E E L S C H O O L S
b.Floods, Fires, and Waterworks in Brampton on
the Etobicoke . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
(1) Fire and Water. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
c. From Groundwater to Lake Water in Bolton
on the Humber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
D. Water & Development: The South Peel System . . . . . . . . . . 72
1. First in the Lake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
a. South Peel System - Then and Now . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
2. Water Efficiency - Water Smart Peel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
3. “Populution” and Water Source Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
a. Multi-Barrier Approach to Safe Drinking Water . . . . . . 81
(1) Peel's Wellhead Protection Area Program . . . . . . . . . 81
Curriculum Connections Pages
Curriculum Connections 1 . . . . . . . . . . .18
Curriculum Connections 2 . . . . . . . . . . .32
Curriculum Connections 3 . . . . . . . . . . .47
IV. CONCLUSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Curriculum Connections 4 . . . . . . . . . . .66
V. APPENDICES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
A. Glossary of Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
B. Articles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
C. Peel’s Historical Population Statistics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
D. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
E. Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
F. Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
T H E P E E L W AT E R S T O R Y | A W AT E R C U R R I C U L U M R E S O U R C E F O R P E E L S C H O O L S
Curriculum Connections 5 . . . . . . . . . . .78
List of Images
5
p.10
The Lilliputian View
p.59
Streetsville Power Plant (Peel Archives)
p.11
Tardigrade Protozoa
p.59
Streetsville CPR Station, 1914 (Archives of Ontario)
p.14
Peel’s Geological Epochs
p.61
1948 Brampton Flood (Peel Archives)
p.15
Gulliver’s View of Peel
p.62
Brampton Diversion Channel map (Peel Archives)
p.17
The Iroquois Plain
p.62
Brampton Diversion Channel photo
p.21
Map of Watersheds in Peel
p.62
Bucket Brigade at Inglewood swamp fire (Peel Archives)
p.27
Cheltenham Badlands, 1945 (Bruce Trail Association)
p.62
“Bucket Brigade” at 2004 Peel Children’s Water Festival
p.27
Cheltenham Badlands today
p.64
Royal Hotel fire, Brampton (Peel Archives)
p.28
Rattray Marsh (Mark Majchrowski)
p.65
Heart Lake aerial view, 1945 (Toronto and Region
p.29
Iroquian Elder Jake Thomas (Jake Thomas Learning Centre)
Conservation Authority)
A River Through Time
p.65
Brampton Council at original well, 1912 (Peel Archives)
p.31
The Great Flood Mural (New Credit First Nation)
p.68
1912 Flood in Bolton (Peel Archives)
p.34
The Government Inn at Port Credit
p.69
Bolton Flour Mill (Peel Archives)
p.35
Ojibwe People Harvesting Wild Rice, 1919 (National Museum
p.69
McFall Dam, Bolton (Peel Archives)
of Canada)
p.70
Bolton’s former groundwater and current lake water supply
p.44
The Well Pump, by Gordon Rayner Sr.
p.71
Map of aquifers in Caledon
p.45
“Simply Divine” at 2004 Peel Children’s Water Festival
p.72
Sediment plume in Lake Ontario
p.46
Windmill well at Malton, 1920s (Peel Archives)
p.72
Port Credit Water Treatment Plant
p.48
Cattle in the Credit River, 1950s (Peel Archives)
p.73
Malton conserves water, 1951 (Peel Archives)
p.52
Puck cartoon of (cholera) “Angel of Death”
p.74
A.V. Roe airplane factory, 1930s (Peel Archives)
p.56
Overshot Wheel (Mississauga Heritage Foundation)
p.74
Sewer construction at Malton Airport, 1938 (Peel Archives)
p.57
Streetsville Swing Bridge over the Credit River (Wes Durie)
p.76
Streetsville Elevated Tank
p.57
Ice on Credit River banks (Peel Archives)
p.77
Gary E. Booth Lakeview Wasterwater Treatment Plant
p.58
Children playing hockey on Streetsville millpond, ca. 1910
Back Cover, Water and Land (Mark Majchrowski)
(Streetsville Historical Society)
T H E P E E L W AT E R S T O R Y | A W AT E R C U R R I C U L U M R E S O U R C E F O R P E E L S C H O O L S
Commissioner’s Message
Teachers,
As a child, the best times were always when we
were outdoors, breathing the fresh air, and playing
in the Credit River valley. At that early age, the
beauty of this country and the magnitude of the
natural resources were never really foremost in
my mind. As I grew up, education and advice from
teachers and parents taught me to appreciate
the wonders of nature, to become engaged in
our environment and understand how our
natural resources play a key role in determining
our future.
Today, as the Commissioner of Public Works
for the second largest and fastest growing
municipality in Canada, I am even more aware
of the increasing need to respect and sustain
the natural elements of our environment. The
Region of Peel is responsible for providing
services to over one million people every day.
In order to provide these services, we continue to
forge partnerships with residents and businesses,
promoting co-operation, communication, and
environmental stewardship.
Each day, our water and wastewater treatment
facilities work to ensure that every drop of
water is delivered in its cleanest form for Peel
residents to enjoy. As our Region continues to
grow, it will become even more important that
we continually invest in the infrastructure to
provide state-of-the-art water purification, to
7
ensure that our drinking water remains plentiful
and healthy. With dedicated and talented staff,
the Region of Peel is able to ensure the delivery of
quality water to our communities and to promote
water efficient programs. However, we cannot do
it alone. Continued support and participation
from the community is important to protecting
our natural environment and communicating
the increasing value of water preservation.
I would like to thank you for your continued
commitment to our children and for helping
them to become informed friends of the
environment.
A key component of our commitment to
providing environmental protection and stewardship is education. We aim to help educate
residents, particularly our children, through
our outreach initiatives at home and in school.
Peel’s water-focused school programs include: the
Peel Children’s Water Festival, the Peel EcoFair,
in-class presentations, water treatment facility
tours and now a new water curriculum resource:
The Peel Water Story.
Mitch Zamojc
Commissioner of Public Works
Region of Peel
Thank you.
The Peel Water Story provides valuable tools to
engage, encourage, and educate our children so that
they will become stewards of our environment.
We are confident that this resource will enhance
your existing school program by providing you
with locally-focused information about Peel’s
water systems. The Peel Water Story has much to
offer, from interesting accounts of our common
past to case studies of student action projects
today and hi-tech tools to explore our modern
water systems.
T H E P E E L W AT E R S T O R Y | A W AT E R C U R R I C U L U M R E S O U R C E F O R P E E L S C H O O L S
INTRODUCTION
8
How to use this
resource
The Peel Water Story (PWS) is a multi-media
resource designed so that each of its parts supports
and enhances the others. As a cross-curricular
resource, PWS can be used in many ways to support your existing water-focused programming.
A CD-ROM is found in this book. It includes:
• A flyover of Peel’s landscape – This virtual
tour shows labelled topographical features
while depicting the size and diversity of Peel’s
natural environment.
• website access – An easy way to boot to the
PWS website.
The website is found at www.peelwaterstory.ca
and includes:
This BOOK contains:
• The Peel Water Story narrative – The history
of water in Peel from pre-historic times to the
present day, which introduces you to the four
“Big Water Ideas” found throughout the resource.
You will also find K-12 curriculum connection
pages as well as suggestions for relevant water
activities, downloadable from the PWS website.
• Case Studies – A sampling of student
environmental action projects in Peel.
More examples can be found on the website.
• Action Guide – A manual for mentoring your
own action projects, which is also on the website.
• Matrix of online Water Activities – Thirtyfour water activities are categorized under
four matrices, each corresponding to a Big
Water Idea. Here teachers can see the relevance
of each activity to subject areas and grade levels.
• The History of Water - A sampling of
excerpted images and sound clips bring the
history of water to life.
• “Big Water Ideas” and Water Activities –
An online source for recommended educational
water activities, categorized by Big Water
Idea, subject area, and grade level.
• The Peel EcoFair – Information about the
event, how schools can participate at our
annual showcase of environmental action
projects, and examples of action projects
from Peel schools.
• Action Guide – Our manual for mentoring
your own action projects.
• Geographic Information Systems –
An interactive, online tool that allows teachers
and students to map their school in relation
T H E P E E L W AT E R S T O R Y | A W AT E R C U R R I C U L U M R E S O U R C E F O R P E E L S C H O O L S
to Peel’s human and natural water systems.
The “Places to Go” page locates dozens of
potential field trips in Peel Region.
• Resource List – An online list of more
educational water resources and information
categorized by media type, including water
presentations and field trips.
Teachers can use one or all parts of the Peel
Water Story. Use it to augment your existing
program and bring that sense of wonder to the
classroom that comes with exploring the world
immediately around you.
The Peel Water Story is much more than a book
and a website; it is a door to the outdoors in
your own community. Take your students outside, help them understand how lessons link to
the world they see around them everyday, and
bring learning to their own backyard. The
result will be students who recognize how their
actions affect their environment, and youth who
may become ambassadors in protecting Peel’s
environment.
INTRODUCTION
I. Introduction
Water is essential to life and health, as well as
our environmental, economic and social wellbeing. “Water is necessary to sustain all life”:
plants, insects, fish, birds, reptiles, mammals
(including humans)… all require water. (This
fact is the first of four “Big Water Ideas” that
underpin this resource, and which are presented
below). Water is a source of food, a means of
transportation, a cleanser, the universal solvent,
an unrivalled state and shape shifter, the ultimate
quencher of thirst. Water is found in miniscule
molecules, and the boundless oceans that cover
much of our planet. So widespread is this elemental
fluid that we may well call our globe “Planet Water,”
rather than planet Earth. For many humans and
“more-than-humans,” water is a habitat, a home.
By its very nature, water changes with conditions
–a process that integrates physical, chemical and
biological alterations, which we call the hydrologic
cycle, and through which all water endlessly
re-cycles. For example, the water that pours out of
a garden hose this morning was in Lake Ontario
yesterday (and in clouds the day before); the
water in your garden’s juicy tomatoes tonight
may be in your body tomorrow, before moving
on elsewhere. This simple example describes
some of the ways in which water continuously
gets around – a small part of the universal
hydrologic cycle, of which we are all a part.
In order to better understand how water gets
9
around in a practical and locally-relevant way, it
helps to understand watersheds, defined later in
this document.
Much of the research reports that the amount of
water has not changed significantly since billions
of years ago; the quantity of fresh water on this
planet is quite fixed.1 While water quantity is
constant, water quality is not. Water can be cleaned
as it moves through the watersheds and through
the processes of change that make up the hydrologic cycle. However, nature’s ability to clean water
does have limits, beyond which water may become
polluted. Ideally, healthy natural systems require
no intervention to function properly, and a
well-functioning natural environment has
social, economic, and health benefits for all,
now and in the future. Degraded natural systems
have costly consequences for communities.2
Water can and does carry contaminants that
threaten health and life, as in the case of waterborne diseases.
Peel Region has an abundance of ground and
surface water resources, but faces “a growing
number of water management challenges as
the extent and intensity of land uses increase
the impact on natural systems, [including]
further fragmentation and loss of the natural
landscape and Peel’s cultural heritage.”3 The
interconnections and relationships among
human activities and the subsequent impacts on
ecosystems must be recognized. In doing so,
Peel’s Regional Official Plan (a public document4)
has put in place a set of environmental policies
to protect and augment the natural environment.
Of course, populated communities have always
been challenged to secure the required quantities
of water, while simultaneously protecting the
water source. Excerpts from Peel’s historical
health record are presented in this story, as are
some of the causes of and responses to water
contamination, past and present.
Modern water treatment and distribution systems
are referred to here as the “human water cycle.”
The water that people use every day for fire
protection, drinking, industrial processes, food
preparation, waste disposal, and cleaning—all
of this water is diverted from—and ultimately
returns to—the “natural water cycle”. That being
said, it is important to recognize that human
activity is natural since after all, we are part of
the biological world. Like beavers and plants,
humans direct what happens to water, and
therefore we affect other biological beings that
share this environment. Our human water cycle
remains an integral part of the natural water cycle.
The Region of Peel is the local provider of
municipal water. In accordance with provincial
T H E P E E L W AT E R S T O R Y | A W AT E R C U R R I C U L U M R E S O U R C E F O R P E E L S C H O O L S
INTRODUCTION
10
Water
Natural Cycle
Human Cycle
Wastewater
Human Cycle
regulations, Peel treats, tests, and distributes
water to its more than one million inhabitants,
ensuring that it is safe for human consumption.
Within the water purveyance profession, the
human water cycle is comprised of two integral
parts: water systems and wastewater systems.
Water that is treated and distributed to the
public is simply called water. Water that has
been used is discharged from our homes,
schools, and workplaces as ‘wastewater’ (or
sewage). By treating the wastewater before
returning it to the natural environment, Peel’s
wastewater collection and treatment network
helps to protect the quality of water in our streams,
rivers, lakes, and wetlands. The treatment of
both water and wastewater in the Region of Peel
is strictly regulated by provincial legislation.
Furthermore, “It is the policy of Regional
Council to protect, maintain and enhance the
quantity and quality of water resources for the
supply of potable water and maintenance of
ecosystem integrity in Peel.”5
A. Gulliver in Lilliput: Experiential
Education & Childhood
It is the aim of this Peel Water Story to assist
educators in learning about water systems
and water issues in an integrated and locallyrelevant fashion, especially as they relate to the
sustainability of water resources in Peel. The
story is intended for school teachers, those
influential mentors and gatekeepers for Peel
youth—that generation of people who are still
capable of growing into the habit of taking care
of where they live. Because our audience is literate
and adult, the chosen vehicle for this information
is a familiar one: a book –formal and abstract.
At intervals throughout this story, watersheds
(the landscapes) of Peel are described from the
T H E P E E L W AT E R S T O R Y | A W AT E R C U R R I C U L U M R E S O U R C E F O R P E E L S C H O O L S
perspective of the mythical giant Gulliver, towering
above—while striding firmly upon—the local
landscape. The analogy of the giant in Lilliput
(“the land of the little people”) is borrowed from
Jonathon Swift’s allegory, and is used here to
provide a visual and conceptual perspective, or vista.
As adults, we are the giants who see far and wide,
making expansive and abstract interpretations
about our world. This is not the Lilliputian view
of things, however. As every teacher and parent
knows, a child’s view of the world is infinitesimally
The Lilliputian View – infinitesimally vast.
INTRODUCTION
The Incredible Ecotourist
Play an imagination game that links to
relationships. While at a pond, park, or
puddle, have the children imagine shrinking in
size seven successive times. Use a metre stick as
a comparison. A pond, 5 metres in diameter,
would be twice the size of the Pacific Ocean
when shrinking the seventh time. You then find
yourself in the microscopic world of E-Coli.
The children can sense and connect with this
world within a world, and view what it would
be like. What is alive in this place? How big?
How small? Use a hand lens to help with the
visualization. What does the water look like
from this view? What do the sands, stones, and
rocks appear to be? Describe for the children
the microscopic life there, or show them under
the microscope. Check out the biodiversity –
places that are the same, but different. What do
you see that is different? What do you hear?
What are the smells? Describe what it feels like
to touch something here. Take a few friends
and role play the creatures you connect with.
These are the ways to get to know the landscape. These are the ways to know your connections to your place. Your watershed is teeming
with life.
Let the children share their personal understandings. Sketch or map part of this Lilliputian world.
Have them write expressively about feelings and
experiences. They will develop metaphors of
connection that will be theirs for life. Have them
show and tell their stories to others.8
11
SEE “TAKE THE pH
CHALLENGE” ACTIVITY
Tardigrade (“Water Bear”) Protozoa found in water
(real and imagined).
vast, but it is not the adult vista; the Lilliputian
view is much closer to the ground.
Experience in childhood corresponds with
perceptual and cognitive stages of development;
it is not (yet) formal or abstract. For children,
“the world of nature is not a scene or even a
landscape…nature is sheer sensory experience”.6
Children’s experiences on the watersheds are
their maps, which guide their understandings of
their relationship to nature throughout their lives.
People can’t help but learn, but in order for
the intended learning to occur, instructive
experiences must correlate with the stages of
children’s development. Any child-focused
education concerned with sustainability needs
to place children locally in nature where, with
all their senses, they can consciously and meaningfully participate in important relationships that
support life. This water-focused resource features
local places that you and your students may have
visited or heard of. Alternatively, there are other
places you will want to visit and learn about,
right in your own backyard: exciting, beautiful,
awe-inspiring places where children can see, hear,
smell, touch, taste, walk, and talk with others
who walk there too.7 These are the ways to know
the landscapes from a Lilliputian view. This local
immersion is the imperative foundation for the
ecological understandings and purposeful
actions that can help sustain our watersheds.
“An important interrelationship exists between
Peel’s natural and cultural heritage that illustrates
the historic link between the municipal community
and its surrounding environment, and which
provides a sense of place and identity.”9 As local
places surrounding schools are losing their biodiversity, children need opportunities to get to
know these places and the water connections
there that support life. When children connect
to a natural place in this way, learning will be
prodigious. Then they may be able to respond
to this decline, and know how to restore these
places, and themselves.10
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INTRODUCTION
12
As a leader in the Public Works industry, the
Region of Peel understands the complex connections that exist between natural ecosystems,
the infrastructure that provides water and
wastewater services, and the people of Peel who
create a demand for those services. We likewise
recognize that these systems and their interconnections are out of sight and therefore little
understood by most people. In recognizing the
shared responsibility (for sustainably managing
water resources) that exists between the Region as
service provider and Peel residents as consumers,
and respecting the environment that supports
us all, this resource aims to go “beyond the
water cycle” and make these connections better
understood. We can look at these connections
from a perspective of “place” and in story form.
The place is Peel Region, and the story is The
Peel Water Story.
B. Peel’s “Big Water Ideas” and the Ontario
Curriculum
The Peel Water Story elaborates on four “Big
Water Ideas,” which state that:
1
Water is necessary to sustain all life.
2
The natural water cycle affects and is affected
by all life forms within local watersheds.
Human activity within local watersheds
affects both natural and human water
cycles, with significant impacts on water
quality and quantity.
4
The Region of Peel supplies safe, secure
and reliable water and wastewater
services while promoting environmental
protection and stewardship.
As you read the narrative story that follows
you will encounter five separate “Curriculum
Connection” pages. The embedded pages relate
to those parts of the story that surround them,
and show which of the Big Water Ideas are
addressed in the text. They also demonstrate
some of the Ontario Curriculum’s learning
expectations that are covered in the narrative
(using the 2005 revised version of the curriculum).
These connections are not exhaustive, but rather
aim to show how the story is relevant to a teacher’s
mandated curricular program. The connections
made are for content subjects only, namely Social
Studies, History, Geography, and Science &
Technology. (Teachers with the Peel District
School Board will notice that the S&T connections
are consistent with the “Enduring Understandings”
document.) The story is also relevant to numerous other subject areas such as Language Arts,
Math, Physical Education, and Visual Arts.
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Each Curriculum Connection box contains
three elements:
i)
an essential quotation from the text suggesting
an overarching theme from that part of the story;
ii) one or more “Big Water Ideas” addressed in
the surrounding text; and,
iii) relevant curricular strands, by subject area
and grade, K – 12.
Indeed the curriculum flows throughout the
story, as the same curricular strands are repeated
for various grades in different chapters of the
Peel Water Story.
The references to curriculum expectations in
this resource serve as a guide to the relevance of
the content; teachers will determine the methods
to be used in teaching the curricular concepts
that are linked to the Peel Water Story. The
Ontario Curriculum is generic in nature and
the Peel Water Story localizes important aspects
of the curriculum through story, activities, and
featured local action projects.
And now, the Peel Water Story…
N AT U R A L C Y C L E
II. Natural Cycle
“My favourite definition of a watershed?
– Communities connected by water.”
–Stephen Born
13
and created one enormous continent - Pangaea.
As the Atlantic Ocean began to form 210 million
years ago, Pangaea split to form the continents
we recognize today, separated by immense oceans.
A. Peel’s Hydrogeologic History
The history of Peel, like all of planet Earth, is a
long geological history spanning billions of
years. Evidence of the earliest signs of life in this
area was trapped 1.3 billion years ago in the
mud of a tropical sea, totally blanketing Peel’s
current watersheds. That mud hardened into
limestone, which was later eroded by water to
eventually become part of the soil in which
plants gradually took root. Approximately one
billion years ago, the forces that built our continent created mountains in Ontario that were
higher and harder than the Rocky Mountains.
Water, ice, and wind wore these mountains away
just like sandpaper wears wood into dust. The
rock dust is the sand of today’s Lake Ontario
beaches. Later, from the east, rivers of red and
grey muddy water flowed out of the Appalachians
and covered southern Peel with sediment that
gradually filtered down to the bottom of the sea.
When the seas were here, the land was probably
desolate, stark, and inhospitable to life as we
know it.
Geological data suggests the land masses of the
Earth (known as “tectonic plates”) collided for a
period of time (350 to 250 million years ago)
1. Tropical Peel
There’s a big rock ridge that took hundreds of
millions of years to form, which passes right
through Peel. It’s called the Niagara Escarpment,
and today it is recognized as a World Biosphere
Reserve by UNESCO (the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization).
This ridge of rock stretches 725 kilometres across
Ontario from Queenston on the Niagara River
to Tobermory at the tip of the Bruce Peninsula.
In Peel, the escarpment runs from Terra Cotta
through Cheltenham, Inglewood, the Forks of
the Credit, Belfountain and Cataract. In some
places the escarpment achieves heights of several
hundred meters. In other places it is buried
under sand, gravel and soil, like at Caledon
Village, en route to Mono Mills. It is also a source
of some of southern Ontario’s prime rivers and
streams, and contains some significant heritage
features, rare plants, and significant habitats.11
a. The Niagara Escarpment
The Niagara Escarpment is an important watershed landform whose origins date back some
430 to 500 million years to a time when Peel
still lay under a shallow, tropical sea complete
with coral reefs. Over time, elements of sea life
became compressed and transformed into rock.
Silt turned to shale, sand to sandstone, shells,
coral, skeletons, and lime mud to limestone.
Erosion of these deposits formed the cliffs we
now call the Niagara Escarpment.12 Today, fossils
are exposed throughout Peel, which provide
tantalizing clues about creatures from our tropical
past. For example, embedded in the shale stones
that we skip on the water at Rattray Marsh, one
can find the fossilized remains of ancient life,
like trilobites and sea lilies that thrived in the
sea 400 million years ago.
But where did the seas go? They withdrew 300
million years ago as the Earth got cooler. No
one is really sure what happened. The land was
raised and the Great Lakes Basin was exposed as
a flat monotonous plain with streams and rivers
rather than deep lakes. Erosion continued and
movements of the Earth made hollows that filled
with rain, becoming freshwater lakes much larger
than the Great Lakes today.
2. Arctic Peel
Climate has – and will continue to be – a dominant
factor influencing the major changes of our
watersheds. The expanses of time addressed here
can hardly be grasped as we fast-forward from
the end of Peel’s tropical sea period (300 million
years ago) to the relatively recent Ice Age (otherwise
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14
Geological Epochs in Peel
Tropical Peel
1.3 billion to 300 million years B.P. (Before Present)
known as the Pleistocene epoch) of Earth’s history
(approximately 1.8 million years ago until 11,000
years Before the Present time [BP]). About one
million years ago, as the climate cooled drastically,
huge glaciers began to form and slowly spread
southward across present day Canada. Imagine
ice covering the Region of Peel to a thickness of
three kilometres. At times during the Pleistocene
Epoch, ice sheets covered most of Canada, large
parts of Europe, and small areas in Asia. But
the glaciation of the long Pleistocene epoch
was not continuous; it consisted of several glacial
advances and retreats, as climate continually
changed.
Previous to the Pleistocene epoch, and during
successive glacial retreats, plant life blanketed
the Peel landscape and strange animals, now
Arctic Peel
Pleistocene Epoch
1.8 million to 11,000 years B.P.
extinct, roamed Peel. Giant beavers the size of
bears chewed through whole forests. There were
wild horses, huge mastodons, and long-tusked
mammoths lumbering across the Peel landscape.
As the continent-wide sheets of ice advanced
each time, spruce forests were ground to powder
and the animals migrated south before Caledon,
Brampton, and Mississauga became locked
under ice.
The most recent of the four major glacial stages
is called the Wisconsin Glaciation Period, which
occurred between 70,000 and 11,000 years BP.
During this period, the Laurentide Ice Sheet
moved down through Southern Ontario. Eleven
thousand years ago, the climate changed yet
again and the Wisconsin glacier retreated. Parts
of that glacier, called the Foxe-Baffin Glacier
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Watershed Genesis
11,000 B.P. to 1800 C.E.
Complex, still exist to this day in the Canadian
arctic, perhaps awaiting another ice age, or waiting
to melt due to global warming - a relatively quick
climatic change, partly induced by human activity.
Ecosystems and life connections in Peel were
different then, as were their relationships to the
watersheds, which changed dramatically over
that relatively short period of time.
3. Watershed Genesis
The retreating Wisconsin glacier of 11,000 years
ago formed Peel’s watersheds as we know them
today. It was at this time that local moraines were
formed when the meltwater of glacial ice, supersaturated with eroded sediments, deposited these
sediments in a large trough between two melting
ice lobes (between the Simcoe and Ontario Ice
Lobes in the case of the Oak Ridges Moraine)
N AT U R A L C Y C L E
Gulliver’s View of Peel Region from the headwaters looking south to
Lake Ontario on the horizon.
15
1
2
3
“Gulliver’s View”
1. Streetsville Elevated Tank
2. Snelgrove Elevated Tank
5
4
3. Bolton Elevated Tank and Stand Pipes
4. Mono Mills Stand Pipe
5. Alton Stand Pipe
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16
The sediment in the trough has formed a ridge,
and the resulting Oak Ridges Moraine is the
thickest and most extensive deposit of glaciallyderived sediment in Ontario, measuring over
200 meters thick in some places.13
a. The Oak Ridges Moraine
The Oak Ridges Moraine is a provincially significant, prominent upland
area that runs east to west through
south central Ontario, intersecting
SEE “I AM AN
Peel. In order to effectively visualize
ACQUIFER” ACTIVITY
the Oak Ridges Moraine (ORM),
imagine yourself a giant-like Gulliver in the land
of the Lilliputians. There you stand on the moraine,
at the height of the land in the northern most
reaches of Peel Region, overlooking the vista of
your home ground. The political boundaries
aren’t visible, but the valleys of Peel’s four major
water courses are, as are the water towers of
Snelgrove, Bolton, and Streetsville.14 Under your
feet are the headwaters for all the major watersheds within the Regions of Peel, Halton,
Dufferin, and Toronto. The ORM can be thought
of as an enormous, natural rain barrel for much
of the area that is the present day Greater Toronto
Area (GTA). At its westerly end, the moraine spills
into the jumble of Caledon Hills country and over
the buried limestone edge of the Niagara
Escarpment. When looking eastward, the ORM
extends further than the eye can see; past Caledon
East and Palgrave, it passes north of Bolton as it
leaves Peel. The hills of the Oak Ridges Moraine
appear to leapfrog over one another in a broad
band that reaches east almost to Peterborough,
where, over 200 kilometers from Caledon, the
gravel hills become less distinct and the Moraine
reaches its edge.
Like much of northern Peel, the ORM was a huge
dumping ground for glacial debris scraped up from
other parts of the countryside. This hummocky
terrain has numerous wetlands and kettle lakes,
like Heart Lake, in Brampton. These depressed
areas were formed by the melting out of large
entrapped blocks of glacial ice. During the early
post-glacial era, the young watercourses of the
Credit, Humber, Etobicoke and Mimico excavated
their own channels. With the continued erosion of
the landscape, these water corridors came into
being under the direction of gravity, widening
and lengthening from their ORM headwaters all
the way south to Lake Ontario.15
The Oak Ridges Moraine is an environmental
treasure that “discharges” clean water as baseflow
for more than thirty rivers and streams that drain
into Lake Ontario, the source of drinking water
for most of Peel’s 1.1 million residents. ORM’s
porous sands and gravels soak up water from rain
and melting snow, which then percolates down and
replenishes or “recharges” groundwater – a source
of drinking water for the remaining Peel residents
in the Town of Caledon. “Groundwater plays an
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important role in the hydrologic cycle of the water
resource system in Peel. The identification, maintenance and protection of groundwater recharge and
discharge features…such as woodlands, topographic
depressions, wetlands, ponds, lakes, rivers and
streams are important to sustaining groundwater
quality and quantity. Groundwater, accumulated and
stored in aquifers, is an important source of drinking
water for individual households (via private wells)
and communities (via municipal wells) in Peel.”16
At the base of the moraine, clean water bubbles
up in artesian wells and springs; near the Village
of Cataract, the Crystal Springs Beverage Company
daily extracts between 136,000 and 227,000 litres of
pure water from two wells.17 By way of absorption
and storage, the moraine also protects the rivers,
roads, and properties from excessive storm water
run off and flood damage.
The Moraine has a unique combination of geological, hydrological, topographical, and biotic
attributes. It performs several essential functions
providing significant natural habitat, surface water
resources, groundwater resources and landform
character. Its significant natural features make its
protection and long-term management important
to the residents of Ontario. It is presently regulated
by provincially approved guidelines.18 As you
stand on the moraine, overlooking the Peel
landscape, realize that the moraine is vital to
the ecological health of our local watersheds.
N AT U R A L C Y C L E
17
b. Ancient Lake
Iroquois - Shoreline
and Plain
Lake Ontario is one of
the Great Lakes. The
word Ontario comes
from the Iroquoian
languages and means
“beautiful/ sparkling
lake.” Lake Ontario
forms Peel’s southern
boundary and is a very
prominent feature within the natural heritage
system of Peel. The fish
and wildlife habitat
associated with this
aquatic ecosystem has
undergone significant
physical change through
shoreline and stream
channel alteration, land
clearance and drainage,
and other urban activities.
It is therefore important
that water resource initiatives along the river
valley and stream corridors and the upland
headwater areas of Peel
be complemented by
efforts to sustain and create fish and wildlife
habitat along the Lake Ontario Waterfront.”19
In their present form, the five
Great Lakes came into being
about 3,000 years ago.
Previously, there existed larger
“ancestral Great Lakes”
including:
SEE “NO WATER
OFF A DUCK’S
BACK” ACTIVITY
1. Lake Iroquois (ancestor of present day Lake
Ontario, which drained to the Atlantic Ocean);
2. Lake Chicago (now Lake Erie and southern
Lake Michigan, which drained via the
Mississippi River into the Gulf of Mexico);
3. Lake Duluth (now Lake Superior, which also
drained via the Mississippi River into the Gulf
of Mexico);
4. Lake Algonquin (today’s northern Lake
Michigan, Lake Huron, and Georgian Bay,
which drained through the French and Mattawa
River valleys directly into the Atlantic Ocean).
Reassume the perspective of Gulliver the Giant,
and imagine travelling south along Hurontario
Street, in Mississauga. Beneath the railway bridge
near Cooksville’s four corners, there is an irregular line of elevation that runs more or less east
and west and roughly parallels Dundas Street.
Approximately five kilometres north of Lake
Ontario, the land here drops several metres at what
is known as the shoreline of ancient Lake Iroquois.
As you continue south and quickly descend the
hill, imagine yourself travelling off an ancient
beach and going under the waters of Lake Iroquois,
which were here a mere five thousand years ago.
Since that time, the waters of the ancient lake have
receded to the point of Lake Ontario today, leaving
in their wake a sandy plain—the “Iroquois Plain”—
which can easily be spied looking south from
atop the steep hill, the ancient beach, at the
intersection of Dundas Street and Mavis Road.
B. Peel’s Life Zones - Climate and Biodiversity
Humans weren’t the first to make Peel their home.
Before the English settlers crossed the ocean;
before the French Voyageurs paddled the rivers to
peddle their wares; even before the Mississauga
(Anishinabeg) or Iroquoian (On,gwehon,we)
nations harvested these rich watersheds, there
were other colonizers moving in and out of
this territory. Plant species of Peel’s current
Carolinian and Mixed Forest Life Zones first
appeared in their present locations approximately
7,000 years ago, due in large part to climate.
Following the Wisconsin glacier’s last retreat,
opportunities dawned for plants and animals to
migrate north. As the climate changed over the
next 3,000 years, south-western Ontario
The Iroquois Plain:
an ancient lake bed.
= intersection of Dundas Street and Mavis Road
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CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
18
Curriculum Connections 1
“The history of Peel, like all of Planet Earth is a
long geological history over billions of years.”
1
Water is necessary to sustain all life.
2
The natural water cycle affects and is affected
by all life forms within local watersheds.
• Kindergarten
Sci/Tech: Exploration and Experimentation
Personal and Social Development: Awareness of
Surroundings
• Gr.3
Sci/Tech: Life Systems: Diversity of Living Things
Sci/Tech: Earth & Space Systems: Soils in the
Environment
Sci/Tech: Life Systems: Interactions Within
Ecosystems
Geography: Patterns in Physical Geography
• Gr.4
Sci/Tech: Life Systems: Habitats and
Communities
Sci/Tech: Earth& Space Systems: Rocks, Minerals,
& Erosion
Social Studies: Canada & World Connections:
Canada’s Provinces, Territories & Regions
• Gr.8
Sci/Tech: Life Systems: Cells, Tissues, Organs, and
Systems
Sci/Tech: Earth and Space Systems: Water Systems
Geography: Patterns in Human Geography
• Gr.9
• Gr.1
• Gr.5
CWS: Geography: Geography of Canada
Sci/Tech: Life Systems: Characteristics and Needs
of Living Things
Sci/Tech: Matter & Materials: Properties of &
Changes in Matter
• Gr.10
Sci/Tech: Earth & Space Systems: Weather
Science: Biology: Earth and Space Science
• Gr.6
• Gr.11
Sci/Tech: Life Systems: Diversity of Living Things
Geography: Physical Geography
Sci/Tech: Earth & Space Systems: Air & Water in
the Environment
• Gr.7
• Gr.12
Sci/Tech: Energy & Control: Energy from Wind
& Moving Water
Sci/Tech: Earth and Space Systems: The Earth’s
Crust
Science: Earth and Space Science
• Gr.2
Sci/Tech: Life Systems: Growth & Changes in
Living Things
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N AT U R A L C Y C L E
19
experienced an evolving series of life zones.
After the Ice Age, the Region of Peel was first
tundra, then boreal forest, and then a mixed
forest zone. Plants and their respective life zones
would actually migrate by a repeated process of
relocating generations. Today, much of Peel’s
undeveloped area is Mixed Forest, as it has been
for the past 7 000 years due to a relatively stable
climate.
1. The Butterfly Effect
Of course, vegetation is the foundation of all
animal life, including human life. Southern
Ontario has the greatest number of plant species
in Canada, and while most of Peel is within the
Mixed Forest Zone, it is our Carolinian Zone in
southern Peel that is the most biodiverse. Some
animals here require specific plants in order to
survive. For example, the larvae of the Spicebush
Swallowtail Butterfly feed exclusively on spicebush
and sassafras plants, both of which are found
only in the Carolinian Zone. Other varieties of
plants found only or extensively in this zone
include oaks, hazelnuts, beech, and maples, which
are valuable food sources for wild turkeys, blue
jays, squirrels and chipmunks, to name a few.20
Throughout the Carolinian zone, gradations of
habitat are comprised of different plants (and
therefore different animals)—from meadows to
shrubs to thickets to forests.
As a prerequisite for life, water is an inseparable
part of Peel’s life zones and biological communities.
One example of the connections between water
and life systems is seen with the moderating
effect of the Great Lakes, which create a milder
climate and in turn extend the breeding ranges
for birds such as the Orchard oriole, Carolina
wren, and Hooded warbler.21 The health of
these biological communities influences, and
is influenced by, the quality of the water in the
soil, brooks, streams, rivers, and lakes as well as
the organisms that live in them, including insects,
crustaceans, amphibians, fish and numerous
other life forms. Biodiversity is in jeopardy in
both Peel’s southern Carolinian and northern
Mixed Forest zones. Species loss and the decline
of health in our local biological communities are
due in part to the loss of habitat. This interconnectedness of the natural world is described by
“the butterfly effect.”22
Climate also continues to have a major and
complex influence on biodiversity within these
life zones. Today, the effects of water, wind,
plants, animals and people change the face of
Peel’s watersheds, just as glaciers did thousands
of years ago. Streams continue to cut valleys.
Kettle lakes—such as Heart Lake—are slowly
evolving into wetlands, which through natural
succession will eventually become dry land, or
climax wooded land. These sorts of changes
occur naturally over thousands of years, but the
human impact of urban development makes
these and other changes occur much more quickly.
C. The Hydrologic Cycle…
and Beyond
1. Water Cycle Thinking
Also known simply as the Water
Cycle, the hydrologic cycle is
SEE
“THE INCREDIBLE
a fundamental ecological
JOURNEY” ACTIVITY
concept that describes in
stages how water cycles seamlessly through our
physical world. Every elementary student is familiar with the basic idea, where water “rains up”
through evaporation and transpiration to form
clouds, which eventually rain down and return
water to earth as precipitation. Amongst the truly
remarkable properties of water is its ability to
endlessly change states in this way, between liquid,
solid, and gas. It is the heat generated by our sun,
or the lack thereof that instigates these changes,
causing water to evaporate (liquid to a gas), for
example, as the vapour rises to form clouds. As a
part of photosynthesis, plants transpire, releasing
water vapour into the environment, which also
eventually becomes a cloud. When the air temperature cools enough, this water vapour eventually
condenses (gas to a liquid). As the clouds get
heavy, gravity causes the liquid water, and all
that is dissolved within it, to fall back to earth as
some form of precipitation. Depending on the
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20
atmospheric temperature, precipitation can
change states and fall not as liquid rain, but as
solid sleet, snow, or hail (liquid to solid).
It is by way of these sun-induced physical
changes in state that water moves through the
hydrologic cycle. When in a solid state, water
may move slowly, remaining frozen for millennia,
as in the case of the glaciers that once covered
Peel. As a liquid, water can move rapidly in rivers
and creeks, like the Credit or the Etobicoke during
spring runoff. Take a walk outside during a rain
or snow storm to witness the rushing creeks and
rivers of our watersheds, as they rush downhill
towards Lake Ontario. This Great Lake can at
times be placid, or quickly conjure up powerful
waves that crash onto the shores of Mississauga.
2. Water Cycle Sensing
To experience the water cycle with all of
our senses, in its many natural forms,
is to truly know the water cycle.
SEE “TOAST TO
This is imperative for children
WATER” ACTIVITY
especially, who make meaning
through experiences and who only gradually
connect abstract knowledge with their collection of personal experiences. All of our senses can
enjoy the rain, mist, snow or sleet. Feel comfortable
in the outdoors. It’s a must. If you’re not there,
you’ll miss something very important. Go on a
safari in the rain and sniff the air; it smells fresh
and clean. Does it? Catch snowflakes on your
tongue. Walk into the mist that rises from the land
early in the morning. Step bare foot onto the dew
of the grass as the sun rises. This is the
“Lilliputian view” of the world. This is the
child’s take on things.
Watch the clouds drift by and notice the variety;
your imagination can wonder at the mystery.
Why do clouds look so white anyway? What
causes them to look like horse tails or cotton
balls? Why do storm clouds look so dark? Why
do they sometimes drift leisurely by and at other
times rush past? Why does the air feel/smell
differently just before it snows or rains? Does it?
How does it? What are the connections between
water and air? Teachers connect ideas to children
through metaphor and children can do the same
for the teacher. Children understand metaphor
at a very young age. They are the owner of the
knowledge they experience about the world,
from nature.
On a hot day, go to a forest. What do you notice
there? Is it good? Why or why not? What else do
you notice as you experience the relationships
between water and the rest of nature? Feeling
the rain, the snow flakes, the dew, the coolness
of the riverside, or warm treated water from the
bathtub faucet; tasting cold, clean water from a
spring or well –these are all sensory experiences
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that help make water more than just two hydrogen
molecules stuck to one oxygen molecule.
In Peel, there are still some diverse, natural
ecosystems. At the Rattray Marsh, Heart Lake,
Albion Hills or a nearby woodlot, children can
sense changes within the ecosystems brought on
by the rain or snowfall. Where does the water
seem to disappear to? Why is it so much cooler
as you get closer to a woodlot, river, or lake? Is
it cooler? What do you begin to realize that is
special? What life forms choose to live in the
water, or near the edge of the river, in the marsh,
in the meadows, in the woodlot? Do you affect
their lives? Do they affect yours? Are you connected at all? What does water have to do with
it? Anything? What is the air cycle? What is the
soil cycle? Can you see how the air and soil cycles
are connected to the water cycle? There is much
more to these systems (which you are a
part of) than meets the eye, or the
written page. Have children tell their
stories about water, sketch them, or
write them expressively in a journey
book. They will do so prodigiously.
SEE “WHEN I WAS
“Tell us your story.”
A CHILD” ACTIVITY
D. Peel’s Watersheds
Let us further explore the water cycle as it functions
here in Peel. First of all: watersheds. A watershed is
the entire area of land whose water (rain and snow),
N AT U R A L C Y C L E
21
sediments, and dissolved materials (nutrients
and contaminants) drain into a water body, like
a marsh, lake, river, stream, creek, or aquifer. Its
boundary can be identified on the ground by
connecting all the highest points of the land
around the receiving body of water. It is not
human-made, and it does not relate to political
boundaries. Homes, farms, cottages, forests,
small towns, and big cities can make up watersheds. They come in all shapes and sizes and can
vary from millions of acres, like the land that drains
into the Great Lakes, to a few acres that drain into
a pond. In Peel, the major watersheds are defined
by the Credit River, Humber River, Etobicoke
Creek, Mimico Creek and their tributaries.23
The stream bed for each of these watercourses
is the lowest ground of a valley into which drains
surface water from the surrounding lands.
Watersheds Map of Peel
Such is predominantly the case in an
area like the Peel Plain where soils
are less permeable and very little
water infiltrates the ground.
SEE “CONSTRUCT A
Instead, most of the surface water
WATERSHED“ ACTIVITY
travels overland and downhill,
draining into streams and rivers, which empty
into Lake Ontario. As Gulliver, walking south
through Caledon, you would notice the northern
extent of the Peel Plain (about 40 kilometers
north of Lake Ontario), where rich agricultural
lands persist (and are provincially protected until
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22
the year 2021). This immense plain almost spans
the width of the Region, and includes part of an
area once covered by the vast Lake Peel at the
time of the last glacier’s retreat.24 As you continue
your giant’s march downhill along Hurontario
Street, farm land gives way to suburban and
industrial development, which covers a full
two-thirds of the Peel Plain (about 750 square
kilometers). The plain dominates the landscape
until you reach its southern limit at the four
corners in Cooksville (just five kilometers north
of Lake Ontario). As Gulliver travels south from
there, Hurontario Street descends a gentle slope
from the Peel Plain’s southerly rim before it
drops down from the ancient shoreline of Lake
Iroquois, described above. Today, the Peel Plain
is home to 95% of Peel’s population and industry.
How would this affect the watersheds?
In other places in Peel, permeable landscapes
absorb water. When rain falls on the Niagara
Escarpment or the Oak Ridges Moraine, it
infiltrates through the fractured bedrock and
percolates through gravel soils to recharge the
groundwater found in underground aquifers.
Some of this groundwater moves laterally and
resurfaces as springs, which may in turn flow
into streams, rivers, wetlands, and lakes. This
feeding of surface watercourses by underground
sources is known as baseflow. Some groundwater
remains underground for eons. Communities
like Caledon East, Mono Mills, and Palgrave
continue to depend on groundwater, as do many
of Peel’s rural residents who have private wells.
At any one time, vast and finite stores of water
are found within our watersheds’ moraines,
aquifers, ponds, and wetlands. Further below,
these environments are explored as an integral
part of the larger water cycle, whose numerous
functions include erosion prevention, habitat
provision, and of course, water purification and
retention.
Key to maintaining and restoring watershed
health is the acknowledgement that all life forms
and processes are interconnected with water.
Like all living beings, people too are a part of
this system that endlessly cycles in various forms
as clouds, ice, dew, tears, lakes, slush, rain, saliva,
snow, fog, mist, urine, sleet, ponds, rivers, sweat,
puddles, wetlands, et cetera. In fact, every life form
is mostly comprised of water, and some form of
exchange is always happening. Whether living
or dead, plants, animals and all other species
eventually give their water back for other uses;
all life is part of this cycle. The water cycle is
dynamic within living systems - both ecosystems
and life forms.
The many branches of the Credit and Humber
Rivers, the Etobicoke and Mimico Creeks have
sustained humans and “more-than-humans” in
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this region for at least 12,000 years. Over the last
two centuries, the water cycle in Peel has been
significantly altered, as is described in the “Human
Cycle” below. Deforestation and growing demands
for groundwater to supply agricultural and residential needs has reduced the baseflow of many
streams. Many tributaries have been “channelized” or buried in pipes underground.
Staggering numbers of wetlands–nature’s holding
areas for stormwater—have been drained or
filled. Groundwater recharge has been significantly reduced because once permeable earth
has been replaced with hectares of impermeable
roads and roofs in our modern cities and towns.
Throughout much of Peel Region the watersheds
are heavily populated and highly urbanized.
In Caledon, where the headwaters are located,
the present land use is primarily agricultural;
agriculture has also contributed to the decline
in these watersheds. The environmental and
economic costs of these alterations are enormous,
and we all stand to benefit from a strategic
return to a more natural hydrologic cycle.25
How should children understand the hydrologic
cycle? Help them to consciously and meaningfully
participate in important ecological relationships
within the local watersheds that we all are a
part of.
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23
1. Credit River Watershed
The Credit River watershed includes the entire
land area drained by the Credit River and its
tributaries, including groundwater flows. The
main axis of the watershed lies in a north-westerly, south-easterly direction and is adjacent to
the Etobicoke and Humber watersheds to the
east, the Nottawasaga watershed to the north,
the Grand watershed to the west, and the
Oakville Creek watershed on its south-westerly
limit.26 Most of the watershed’s 1,070 square
kilometres falls within the political boundaries
of the Region of Peel.
The Credit River itself originates at a cedar swamp
in the hills of Mono Township, northeast of Alton.
It flows approximately 105.8 kilometres from its
northerly headwaters at the Orangeville Reservoir’s
“Island Lake” all the way south to Lake Ontario.27
The present course of the Credit was shaped
10,000 to 15,000 years ago, making it part of
the remnants of the last Ice Age.
Described above, the Oak Ridges Moraine is
found partially in the upper eastern part of the
Credit watershed where it acts like a large storage
tank absorbing precipitation and delivering this
water to underground aquifers. These aquifers
filter and store fresh, clean water accessed via wells;
they also slowly release clean water into rivers
like the Credit and its northern tributaries:
Shaw’s Creek, the West Credit, Caledon Creek,
the East Credit, and Silver Creek. Located in the
Mixed Forest Life Zone, 60% of the upper
watershed is covered with deciduous forests and
white cedar swamps.28 This northern portion of
the watershed is rugged, with moderate lateral
slopes. As you follow the Credit River south,
just upstream of the Forks of the Credit, the
river is at 527 meters above sea level, and then it
suddenly drops more than 100 metres. Between
the villages of Cataract and Inglewood the
incline is marked. Southward from the Forks,
the land undulates for at least five kilometres
through a valley of scrub forest and wetlands.
One must marvel at the beauty of the Credit
Valley as the land then flattens out all the way
south to Brampton Airport, creating a landscape
that sustains horse and dairy farms within the
shadow of the influential Niagara Escarpment.
To the southwest, the Credit River crooks near
the University of Toronto at Mississauga before
meandering in a south-easterly direction, passing
through the Mississauga Golf Course and then
ending in a beautiful harbour overlooked by a
lighthouse. Today the river is approximately 15
feet at its deepest, near the mouth, at Port Credit.
But before major deforestation (discussed below)
and the resultant erosion and evaporation which
occurred, the Credit was “a much deeper, wider
stream, a proud stream with numerous picturesque
falls and rapids, a river compared to which the
Don, Humber and Etobicoke were puny streams
indeed.”29 Large ships at that time were able to
get upstream as far as the present day Mississauga
Golf Course.
Being located in the Carolinian Zone, the lower
Credit watershed once boasted much more biodiversity. As the shores of the ancient Lake
Iroquois receded south to the point of today’s
Lake Ontario, the exposed soils of the Iroquois
plain were colonized by maple, oak, hickory,
and white pine. There were also areas of swamp,
savannah, prairie, and wetlands, some of which are
being restored by the Credit Valley Conservation
Authority at Jack Darling Park.
As with Peel’s other watersheds, the effects of
urbanization have severed the Credit’s ecological
connections that once supported teeming life
zones. Today, that past biodiversity can only be
glimpsed through historical and archaeological
records, including this Peel Water Story. The
primeval forests that once covered this region
remained intact and were not considered in need
of protection until as late as 1850. In 1836, for
example, the Credit River was described as
“winding its silent way through a sea of trackless
forest, on each side the very finest pine in that
or any other day.” The effects of deforestation are
addressed below, however, one can appreciate
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how fauna (animal life) disappeared, after flora
(plant life) did.
Few of the original inhabitants of Peel’s
watersheds such as beaver, fox, moose,
weasel, and porcupine have been seen
here for centuries. One early resident
SEE “THE SOLUTION TO
of Streetsville recounted how “in
POLLUTION“ ACTIVITY
1835, the last bear to be seen in these
parts was killed.”30 By the time of Confederation
in 1867, every part of the Credit watershed was
occupied by settlers. As described below, these
major alterations to the local ecosystems brought
serious economic and cultural challenges to the
First Nations peoples of this area, since their
livelihood depended directly upon sustainable
natural systems and practices.
Today, a few species are making a comeback in
the Credit watershed. Through stocking activities,
Atlantic salmon have returned to the river. Wild
turkeys have also been seen in the watershed
thanks to reintroduction efforts throughout
Southern Ontario. Most of the remaining natural
ecosystems, however, are located in the upper
watershed. To the south, some areas such as
Rattray Marsh, Eldorado Park, the Creditview
Wetland, and Eden Woods Park Woodlot give
a good composite of what the Carolinian Zone
looked like before European settlement, and
demonstrate some healthy ecological relationships.
Since the 1954 onset of urban expansion from
Toronto into Peel, it is the Humber watershed
that has been impacted the most. It was in 1954
that the Ontario Government established the
Credit Valley Conservation Authority (CVC),
which since that time continues to study many
aspects of the watershed. Indeed, as development
extends further north into the Region of Peel,
the Credit River watershed’s ecosystems will
come under increasing pressure. Efforts must be
made by all stakeholders to find solutions that will
restore watershed health, particularly in the
areas of storm water management and forest
protection.31
2. Humber River Watershed
The Humber watershed is the other large watershed
within the Region of Peel. Encompassing 908
square kilometres, it is nearly as large as the
Credit watershed, and is the largest of the nine
watersheds found within the Toronto and Region
Conservation Authority’s (TRCA) jurisdiction.
The main branch of the Humber travels 100
kilometers from its headwaters in the Oak Ridges
Moraine all the way south to Lake Ontario,
dropping over 350 metres in elevation as it does
so. The river system is composed of 750 streams
in total, which together form 1,800 kilometers of
tributaries. It is the main branch of the Humber
River that is found in Peel, where it passes through
the communities of Bolton and Palgrave.
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The Humber River has been known by other
names throughout history. The First Nations
Haudenosaunee peoples called the river
Tau-a-hon-ate meaning “place where they
pull up their canoes” in the Seneca language.32
It was later known by European settlers as
St. John ‘s Creek to commemorate the earliest
French settler on its banks, who went by the
name St. Jean Baptiste. It was the Lieutenant
Governor John Graves Simcoe, who, preferring
English names over Aboriginal ones, decided
to call the river “Humber” in the Township of
Albion. He imagined that the first English
settlers would feel less homesick coming to a
township bearing the romantic name of England,
and whose major river was named for one of
the largest and most important rivers in that
country, (beside which Simcoe had his
Devonshire estate).
The memoirs of an early settler in Bolton provide
a sense of the Humber watershed’s natural wealth:
“In the fall of 1858 we saw the last great flight of
the passenger pigeon. Of course the salmon were
all gone, but twenty years earlier big catches of
these fish were speared in the deep holes of the
river. [Other] fish were [still] plentiful: brook
trout, red chub and shiners —all good eating fish.
It was common to take fifteen to twenty 8 to14
inch trout below the dam in an evening’s fishing
with rod and line. Saw mill men would hang a
N AT U R A L C Y C L E
25
basket over the mill wheel a little above the water
at night and find a good catch of trout in it in the
morning –fish that had been trying to jump the
little dam but lit in the basket.” 33
The Humber River is a designated Canadian
Heritage River. The importance of the Humber
River and watershed to Aboriginal and nonAboriginal peoples is addressed below.
3. Etobicoke & Mimico Creek Watersheds
Situated beside one another and in between the
Credit and Humber watersheds are Peel’s third
and fourth major watersheds, which drain to our
two major creeks –the Etobicoke Creek and the
Mimico Creek. Throughout most of their lengths,
both of these creeks are cut into the glacial deposits
that lie on top of the much older bedrock. The
creeks came into being because of the geologic
features of the landscape, and the force of gravity
directed the movement of runoff and groundwater seepage to the lowest elevations.34
In comparison to the Mimico, the Etobicoke
Creek has a larger watershed and greater stream
flows, resulting in valley systems that are more
pronounced. The Etobicoke rises close to the
Village of Cheltenham, at the Region’s northern
extreme in Caledon. Here on what is known as
the South Slope plain of the ORM, one can leap
across the beginnings of the narrow Etobicoke
Creek. In the headwaters area, there are several
stretches with well-defined valley walls and
flood plains. The creek meanders south across
the Peel Plain to the place where, on its flood
plains in 1853, the village of Brampton was
incorporated. Discussed at length further below,
the relationship between the Etobicoke Creek
(demoted from a “River”) and this growing
village (that became a town and now a city),
is deeply interwoven. South of Brampton, the
creek turns east to skirt the edge of Lester B.
Pearson International Airport where it meets
Spring Creek. It’s south of the 401 highway,
in the lower part of the watershed, that the
Etobicoke’s steepest valley walls reach nine to
twelve metres in height and where the underlying
shale bedrock is exposed.35 Finally, the Etobicoke
turns south again and tumbles down to Lake
Ontario, beside the pebble beach of Marie Curtis
Park. This southern stretch of the Etobicoke
Creek forms the eastern boundary of Peel Region
(and the City of Mississauga). The Ojibwa word
Etobicoke means “the place where alders grow.”
The Mimico Creek headwaters are found in
Brampton’s glacial till, deposited there 22,000 to
13,000 years ago. The entire Creek is 32 kilometers
in length with a total drop in elevation of 160
meters. The valley system of Mimico Creek is very
shallow upstream of Derry Road, where its two
main branches join behind Lincoln Alexander
Secondary School in Malton. Students at the
school have been involved over the years in a
partnership to naturalize the banks of the creek
there. The southern part of Mimico Creek,
however, flows through a well-formed valley
across the Iroquois Sand Plain where the gradient begins to steepen. The creek intersects the
ancient shoreline of Lake Iroquois near the
junction of Dundas Street and Islington
Avenue.36 The Ojibwa word Mimico means
“resting place of wild pigeons.”
4. Peel’s Wetlands
Wetlands are contained within, and are an
integral, if undervalued, part of any watershed’s
ecological systems. Each of Peel’s four major
watersheds contains wetland areas, as do others.
Wetlands include marshes, swamps, bogs, and
fens. While wetlands once covered 11% of Peel
Region prior to European settlement, today less
than 5% of Peel is wetland.
It’s important to understand that while rivers
help to carry water away relatively quickly,
wetlands help to keep it in one place longer.
Wetlands hold floodwater, and can protect
developed areas against flooding. Because plants
use vast quantities of water, vegetation and soils
act as great sponges to slow down and reduce
the amount of rainwater that enters a river. So
the more wetlands we have, the less chance of
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an unnaturally large flood.37 By filling in wetlands,
we risk flooding that can result in the loss of rare
plants and animals, not to mention property
and even human life.
Wetlands are extremely valuable to the diversity
of life found in Peel’s watersheds. They provide
habitat for a large percentage of flora and fauna
throughout the four seasons. While stabilizing and
protecting lakeshores and banks from erosion,
weedy wetland edges of lakes and ponds simultaneously provide protection and spawning grounds
for fish and their prey. Marshes are shallow water
wetlands with even greater diversity; here we find
cattails, bulrushes, arrowheads, reeds, pickerel
weed, as well as grasses and sedges. Fish, ducks,
frogs, and a variety of insects seek out this habitat
to raise their young, and predators follow.
Wetlands play a key role in the hydrologic cycle,
as groundwater aquifer recharge areas and evaporation areas. Wetlands play a crucial role in
helping to ensure safe drinking water. Plants in
a healthy wetland improve water quality by
processing nutrients and pollutants. They also
maintain oxygen levels in the water. Marsh
plants are particularly effective at soaking up
large quantities of excess nitrogen and phosphorus, thus reducing water pollution downstream.38 They can absorb heavy metals and
other pollutants, thereby purifying the water
that eventually reaches our aquifers, rivers and
lakes, all sources of drinking water in Peel.
Additionally, wetlands provide food and other
necessities for humans and more-than-humans.
They help improve air quality by contributing
to the cycling of gases such as oxygen, methane,
and carbon. And not least of all, wetlands like
the Rattray Marsh are a source of rejuvenation,
recreation, and education for all.39
5. The Bog, the Badlands, and the Big
Kettle Lake
Described below are just a few from amongst
the numerous and amazing “Places to Go” in
Peel. (see GIS resource “Places to Go” at
www.peelwaterstory.ca)
THE CREDITVIEW WETLAND (also known
as "the bog") forms part of a composite of Peel's
primeval past. An area of 4 hectares in the City
of Mississauga, the protected wetland is located
north of Eglinton Avenue West, and east of
Creditview Road. It is situated at the northern
end of a shallow, north-south oriented depression created at the time of the last glacial retreat.
Indeed, while other places in Peel changed more
noticeably over time with natural succession,
parts of this place still resemble Peel's tundra
landscape of 11,000 years ago when the glaciers
first withdrew.
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As a rare wetland with bog-elements, located
within Canada's Carolinian Zone, this natural
heritage feature takes us back thousands of
years to the time when the woolly mammoths
roamed Peel. The sphagnum peat moss there is
the oldest we know of in Ontario. This is a great
place to sense wetland biodiversity today, as it is
home to 109 wildlife species, as well as 207
plants, (43 of which are rare within the Region
of Peel). While the drainage area for the wetland
remains relatively self-contained, water quality
impacts include nutrient and pesticide runoff
from adjacent school and park lands, although
the City of Mississauga has undertaken efforts
to reduce pesticide and fertilizer use through
Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices.
It is thanks to the efforts of concerned citizens
that this valuable ecosystem has been protected
through the years and is now owned by the City
of Mississauga. This wetland is a sensitive and
rare environment and therefore access is strictly
controlled. Plans are underway for a future
interpretive education area. For more information about the Creditview Wetland and its
Conservation Plan, visit the City of
Mississauga's website.
The CHELTENHAM BADLANDS (sometimes
called the “Caledon Badlands”) got their name
because they are close to the village of Cheltenham
N AT U R A L C Y C L E
27
The Cheltenham Badlands, 1948.
in the Town of Caledon, and because the denuded
landscape resembles the Badlands of Western
Canada. They are found in the shadow of the
Niagara Escarpment on the south side of Old
Baseline Road, just east of Creditview Road. This
feature is a stunning example of the erosive power
of water when protective trees are removed. The
distinct red colour of the earth at the Badlands
is made up of Queenston shale, which appears
throughout this area.
Peel’s tropical sea of 430 million years ago was
teeming with life, although plants and animals
were not yet established on land. Southeast of here
(roughly where the Appalachian Mountains are
now) an enormous mountain range was rising
from the collision of the North American and
European Continental Plates. The rocks of these
The Badlands today. More than 50 years separates these two photos of the Badlands, a bare
landscape caused by deforestation. A comparison of the photos attests to the ongoing effects
of erosion there.
mountains were rich in iron, and rivers flowing
down these mountains picked up the red, iron-rich
sediment and transported it to the sea. When
the fast-moving rivers reached the calm sea, the
sediment was deposited and eventually compacted into the red Queenston shale. The sea
disappeared 300 million years ago, and a long
period of erosion began.
Queenston shale is a very soft rock, which erodes
rapidly if layers of other rock or vegetation are
removed. The Cheltenham Badlands probably
began to form in the early 1900s when the trees
were cut down to allow for a cattle pasture. With
the protective layer of vegetation removed, the
shale began to erode. Although farming at the
site ended in 1931, erosion of the Badlands
continues. The Badlands are part of Ontario’s
Niagara Escarpment, which was designated a
UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organisation) World Biosphere
Reserve in 1990. The Badlands lie within the
Inglewood Slope Environmentally Sensitive Area
(ESA), which is an important groundwater discharge zone. The coldwater stream on the property at the foot of the badlands is a tributary of
the Credit River.
In 1999, the Cheltenham Badlands property was
bought for the Bruce Trail Association with funds
from the Ontario Ministry of
Natural Resources’ Natural Areas
Protection Program. The property was purchased to secure 2 km
of the Bruce Trail Optimum
SEE “THE EROSION
Route, and ensure its long-term
GAME“ ACTIVITY
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28
protection as a natural area. While natural erosion processes cannot be stopped, one of the stewardship goals is to minimize the erosion of the
shale by staying on designated trails and preserving the existing vegetation. This will reduce
the amount of sediment entering the Credit River,
while conserving the rare features of the Badlands.
Guided school tours of the Cheltenham Badlands
are conducted by the Bruce Trail Association.
See their website for more information.
Located at the centre of Peel Region, in the City
of Brampton, HEART LAKE is a kettle lake that
got its name in the 20th century when aerial
photography allowed people to discern its heartlike shape. It was previously known by other names,
including Snell’s Lake. A kettle lake is a depressed
land area that is filled with water, which was
formed by the melting out of large, entrapped
blocks of glacial ice. Heart Lake itself, and the
surrounding Heart Lake Conservation Area,
contain several wetlands. This environmental
jewel has a long history of human and ‘morethan-human’ occupation, which continues to this
day. Visit Heart Lake and see Peel’s largest colony
of Great Blue Herons, enjoy the various kinds
of water recreation it has to offer: swimming,
boating, fishing and sightseeing.
Created by the retreating Lake Iroquois, RATTRAY
MARSH occupies 33 hectares at the mouth of
Looking north from Lake Ontario across the shingle bar that separates the lake from Rattray Marsh,
the mouth of Sheridan Creek.
the Sheridan Creek in the Credit River watershed.
For “the past 10,000 years it has acted as a filter for
Sheridan Creek before it empties into Lake Ontario.
There are approximately 450 species of flora
within the marsh and a diverse bird population
that includes the Great Egret and the Blackcrowned Night Heron.”40 The Rattray Marsh is
a significant wetland in Peel that was saved from
development by the intervention of concerned
citizens. Embedded in the stones along the
shingle bar, which we skip along the water, can
be found the fossilized remains of ancient life,
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like trilobites and sea lilies that thrived in Peel’s
tropical sea of 400 million years ago. At Rattray
Marsh, with a bit of imagination, one can sense
the presence of an ancient past. Take a child(ren)
there and tell the story. For more information
visit Credit Valley Conservation Authority’s
website.
HUMAN CYCLE
III.Human Cycle
www.jakethomaslearningcentre.ca
29
The late Iroquian Elder Jake Thomas with the
“Evergrowing Tree Belt.”
A. First Nations in Peel
In order to understand the full story of water
in Peel, we must consider the local relationship
between water and people through time. We will
begin with the First Nations peoples who have
lived in this region since time immemorial.
Having read the Natural Cycle in the previous
chapter, we have a sense of how climate shaped
the local landscape over long periods of time.
This knowledge will help us better understand
the major role that (changing) landscapes play in
the settlement patterns of humans, both Native
and immigrated peoples.
The story of First Nations habitation within
Peel’s watersheds, in both pre- and post-contact
periods, is extraordinarily complex. It is also
incomplete, and remains in places so sketchy in
detail and controversial in interpretation that it
raises as many questions as it answers. What we
do know comes from four main sources: oral
traditions, historical records, archaeological
records, and material culture (such as
artefacts).41
The earliest archaeological evidence of human
habitation in Peel dates from what archaeologists term the Palaeo-Indian Period (11,000 to
7000 BP) immediately following the retreat of
the glaciers. There is little evidence of settlement at this time period; the unearthing of
pointed stone tools in the Credit and Humber
watersheds suggests that these First peoples of
Peel harvested in nomadic groups of 15 to 100
people, amongst a sparse population, due in
part to the severe post-glacial climate. In May
2003, various tool remnants were uncovered by
archaeologists beside Heart Lake, in Brampton,
where the large kettle lake would surely have
attracted people then, as it does today. “The
presence of these artefacts suggests that this area
was once occupied by an Aboriginal group as a
short-term workstation (perhaps related to
hunting activities and/or to sharpen tools), at an
unknown point in the past.”42
Pre-contact Native cultures were seamlessly
joined with the natural ecosystems of which the
people knew they were an integral part. The socioeconomic, political, and spiritual aspects of the
culture were infused with a deep understanding of
ecology and sustainability. As a vital element,
water is immensely important to all life forms
and is so regarded by Native people who use water
for sustenance, a food source, irrigation, physical
and spiritual cleansing, transportation, amongst
numerous other purposes. The indigenous peoples
of Peel are comprised of two major linguistic
groups: the Ongwehonwe (Iroquoians) and the
Anishinabeg (Ojibwe).
1. Ongwehonwe –The Iroquoian Peoples
“THE IROQUOIS THANKSGIVING ADDRESS”
THE PEOPLE
Today we have gathered and we see that the cycles
of life continue. We have been given the duty to live
in balance and harmony with each other and all
living things. So now, we bring our minds together
as one as we give greetings and thanks to each other
as people.
Now our minds are one.
...THE WATERS
We give thanks to all the waters of the world for
quenching our thirst and providing us with strength.
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Water is life. We know its power in many forms
–waterfalls and rain, mists and streams, rivers
and oceans. With one mind, we send greetings
and thanks to the spirit of Water.
Now our minds are one.
THE FISH
We turn our minds to all the Fish life in the water.
They were instructed to cleanse and purify the water.
They also give themselves to us as food. We are
grateful that we can still find pure water. So, we turn
now to the Fish and send our greetings and thanks.
Now our minds are one...43
Evidence exists of human habitation across
southern Peel for the Archaic Period (7,000 to
3,000 BP) when there were likely thousands of
people harvesting nomadically in the lower
watersheds. The Carolinian forests and waterways teemed with life then, supporting humans
and more-than-humans throughout this time
period. As the post-glacial climate gradually
warmed up, corresponding changes in the
peoples’ cultural practices occurred, which are
categorized as the Woodland Period (3,000 to
400 BP). At this time the banks of today’s Credit
River were periodically inhabited and used as
fishing camps.44 People by that time began to
live in settlements as evidenced by local, found
remnants of longhouses and pottery. These people
also cultivated corn, which originated in Mexico
and gradually made its way into southern Ontario
through trade, by about 1500 BP. Ongwehonwe is
the word used by all Iroquoian peoples to describe
themselves as “the people.” The many Iroquoian
nations and languages can be assembled into
two main groups, described below.
The first group, known collectively as the Ontario
Iroquoians, included the Wendat (Huron), Petun,
Erie and Neutral peoples who made their homes
within the rich watersheds of southern Ontario,
prior to European contact. Written records of
these peoples and their lifestyles exist in the diaries
of French Jesuit missionaries who travelled the
waterways and came into contact with the Wendat
in 1615. Via a complex system of navigable waterways, the Ontario Iroquoians had long established
trade routes with their neighbours. Tobacco, which
grew well in the climate of the Petun and Neutral
peoples, was traded to the Wendat who in turn
traded corn meal to the Anishinabeg peoples
who supplied them with copper from the north
shores of Lake Superior.45
their enemies, the Ontario Iroquoians. In the
sixteenth century, the Credit River’s salmon
fisheries and the fur trade first drew the
Haudenosaunee peoples across the waters,
from their traditional territories south of Lake
Ontario. By 1680, there were six Haudenosaunee
villages in southern Ontario, where the lower
sections of the watersheds—featuring the Peel
Plain and large rivers—made travel easier, as
compared to the hilly terrain and smaller streams
of Peel’s northern watersheds.
Early French maps place the Seneca fishing village
of Taiaiagon at a distance upriver from the mouth
of the river Tau-a-hon-ate (Humber) meaning
“the place where they pull up their canoes” in the
Seneca language. The Haudenosaunee at the time
were mostly horticulturalists who supplemented
their farming with hunting. The “Three Sustainers”
of corn, beans, and squash, were dietary staples
that thrived on the flood plains of the Humber
and Credit Rivers.
2. Anishinabeg –The Mississauga Ojibwe People
The second group, known collectively as the
Haudenosaunee (translating from the Seneca
language to mean “people of the long house”)
includes the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga,
Cayuga and Seneca peoples. In 1450 they
formed a confederacy, known to Europeans as
the League Iroquois, not to be confused with
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“THE STORY OF CREATION ACCORDING
TO THE ANISHINABEG PEOPLE”
In the beginning there was a great flood and
Nanabozhoo, the Superbeing who created the Earth,
worked very hard to rescue as many birds and
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31
you to try to get a handful of earth.” The muskrat
dove down and was gone for a very long time.
Meanwhile, Nanabozhoo breathed life into the loon,
the beaver and the otter. Then the muskrat floated to
the surface, also dead, but tightly held in its little paw
was a handful of earth and more earth was in its
mouth. With this earth Nanabozhoo made the world
by spreading the dust on the water and allowing it to
multiply. He rewarded the muskrat with new life
and promised that it would never become extinct.46
Nanabozhoo with the animals during the great
flood. Excerpt from mural at Mississaugas of New
Credit First Nation
animals as he could. All the surviving creatures
were placed on a raft in the middle of this vast sea.
Nanabozhoo realized he must create a new world,
but to do so he needed a small amount of earth.
He spoke to the birds and animals saying that they
must help him. All were willing and he chose the
loon first, for it caught its food by diving. “Would
you swim to the bottom of the water and grab a
handful of earth?” The loon dove and was gone a
long time and then its body floated up, dead. Next
he sent the otter but it also died trying, as did the
beaver.
Nanabozhoo became worried. If the strongest divers
failed, who could succeed? He turned to the muskrat.
“You are not as strong as the others but I must ask
The teaching above forms part of an oral historical
record passed down through the Anishinabeg
people, who were one of the First peoples here
when the European settlers arrived to live in the
area now called the Region of Peel. Like so
many creation stories, this one includes aquatic
beginnings and a collaborative effort between
natural and supernatural beings.
The Mississauga people call themselves
Anishinabeg, meaning “the people.” During
the 1680s, the Anishinabeg from the Lake
Huron area migrated from an area where many
rivers drained into the North Channel at the
head of Lake Huron. One such river was known
as the Mississagi, which takes it name from
the Ojibwe meaning “many river mouths.”
Consequently, in 1634, French missionaries met
these people and called them after the local
river; this is how they eventually became known
as the “Mississauga Natives.” Some of these people
migrated south down the Holland River, portaging
west to the first trickle of the Humber and down
the river valley to Lake Ontario on a trail known
to First Nations peoples from the earliest days.
The trail in the soil was worn a full foot deep,
long before Etienne Brulée first travelled over it
in 1615. Following a major battle victory over the
Haudenosaunee in 1701, the Mississaugas took full
control of southern Ontario. The Mississaugas
made their homes in portable, birch bark wigwams.
The river flats at the mouth of the Credit became
a favourite camping ground where there were
salmon throughout the seasons, but more so
during autumn spawning.
B. First Nations and European Contact in Peel
Students of Canadian history will remember
that the French mariner, Samuel de Champlain,
like Jacques Cartier before him, was seeking the
seagoing route to the Orient. Upon reaching
North America, both were spurred on westward
by First Nations accounts of a “sea of which no
one has seen the end.”47 Early explorers heard
numerous accounts of great waters west of
Montreal, which Champlain had hoped would
lead to the spices of the East. It was only when
Champlain’s emissary, Etienne Brulé, travelled
inland with First Nations people that the newcomers learned of the immense fresh water “seas”
that are the Great Lakes. In September 1615,
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CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
32
Curriculum Connections 2
“Prior to large scale deforestation, forests
played a vital role in maintaining watershed
health.”
1
Water is necessary to sustain all life.
2
The natural water cycle affects and is
affected by all life forms within local
watersheds.
• Gr.4
• Gr.8
Sci/Tech: Life Systems: Habitats and Communities
Geography: Patterns in Human Geography
Sci/Tech: Earth & Space Systems: Rocks,
Minerals, and Erosion
History: Canada: A Changing Society
Sci/Tech: Earth & Space Systems: Water Systems
Social Studies: Canada & World Connections:
Canada’s Provinces, Territories & Regions
• Gr.9
• Gr.5
CWS: Geography: Geography of Canada
Sci/Tech: Life Systems: Human Organ Systems
• Gr.2
Sci/Tech: Earth & Space Systems: Weather
Sci/Tech: Earth & Space Systems: Air and Water
in the Environment
Sci/Tech: Life Systems: Growth & Change in
Living Things
Social Studies: Canada & World Connections:
Features of Communities around the World
Science: Biolog: The Sustainability of Ecosystems
• Gr.6
Social Studies: Heritage and Citizenship: First
Nation Peoples and European Explorers.
• Gr.7
• Gr.3
History: New France
Sci/Tech: Life Systems: Diversity of Living Things
History: British North America
Social Studies: Heritage and Citizenship: Early
Settlements in Upper Canada
Geography: Natural Resources
Social Studies: Canada and World Connections:
Urban and Rural Communities
• Gr.10
Sci/Tech: Life Systems: Interactions within
Ecosystems
Sci/Tech: Earth & Space Systems: The Earth’s Crust
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• Gr.11
Geography: The Americas
Science: Human Impact on the Environment
Native Studies
• Gr.12
CWS: History: Canada: History, Identity and
Culture
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Brulé travelled south with the Algonkian people
via the Humber River to its mouth, where he
was introduced to the great Lake Ontario. The
aforementioned Humber River valley formed
part of an ancient transportation corridor known
as the Toronto Carrying Place trail, which led
from Lake Ontario to the Wendat territory of
Georgian Bay. The Seneca described the river well:
Tau-a-hon-ate meaning “the place where they pull
up their canoes.” The portage paths en route “were
worn deep, sometimes a foot, always six inches
into the earth. The Toronto Portage was a highway
of...geographical importance,” which became
known to the European newcomers as “the
shorter way” to the high country.48
Early European explorers, traders, and missionaries used the Humber River more than any
other route to reach Georgian Bay and Lake
Huron. In 1640, the Jesuit missionary, Jean de
Brebeuf, used the Humber’s Carrying Place trail
to travel from the mission at Sault Ste. Marie to
Queenston and visited 19 indigenous communities
en route. In 1674, the explorer Robert Cavalier
commanded a small flotilla of ships, which often
took harbour during lake storms at the Seneca
village of Taiaiagon situated a short distance up
the mouth of the Humber River, then several
times wider and deeper than it is now.49
In 1793, almost two centuries after Brulé, Upper
Canada’s first Lieutenant Governor, John Graves
Simcoe, explored the Toronto Carrying Place trail
for 27 days while considering a possible canal
from Lake Ontario to Lake Toronto (later named
Lake Simcoe by the Governor, in honour of his
father). He noted uncommonly large and tall
trees, and excellent land with rich, black earth.
Simcoe was not impressed by the trail however,
where, encumbered with his supplies, he waded
waste-deep in mud. Close to starvation, his crew
returned to York via a surveyor’s line instead,
which three years later opened as Yonge Street,
connecting York (now Toronto) to Lake Simcoe.
That 1793 expedition took place on lands freshly
purchased in 1787, by Upper Canada, from the
Mississauga First Nation, as part of the “Toronto
Purchase.” With the subsequent appearance of
Yonge Street, the ancient Toronto Carrying Place
trail faded into history. To this day around Malton,
people refer to parts of the boundary line between
Toronto and Peel as “Indian Line”, the precise
boundary between the Toronto Purchase lands
and the then unceded Mississauga Tract. Today,
“Indian Line Campground” is operated by the
Toronto & Region Conservation Authority along
that old boundary, on the banks of the Humber
River, above the Claireville (flood control) dam.
1. Across the Waters –Immigration and Treaties
On yet another journey in May of 1796,
Lieutenant Governor Simcoe, along with his
wife and guides, took harbour up the Credit
River. In her diary, Mrs. Elizabeth Simcoe
describes the journey:
(The wind) rose violently from the West…The
motion was disagreeable and my fears awoke also,
till we landed at 3 at the River Credit 12 miles
from York. We were surprised to see how well the
canoe made her way through this heavy sea. She
rode like a Duck on the waves. After dinner we
walked by the River of Credit. Numbers of Indians
resort here at this Season to fish for Salmon, and
the Governor [Simcoe],wishing to go some way up
it, made signs to some Indians to take us into
their Canoe which they did. There were two men
in her which, with ourselves and Sophia, completely filled the Canoe. They carried us about
three miles when we came to the rapids and went
on shore. The banks were high on one side, covered with pine, and a pretty piece of open rocky
country on the other.50
An earlier 1632 map by Champlain describes
our local lakeshore and shows an unnamed river
“rising in the north-west and flowing south into
Lake Ontario” between the Humber River and
the west end of the lake. This is the same river
that Mrs. Simcoe later identified as the “River
of Credit.” The river’s English name “Credit”
indicates the mouth of that river where Native
and non-Native peoples met annually in order
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to trade and lend credit on goods exchanged;
such trade usually involved furs for tools. The
Anishinabe (Mississauga Ojibwe) word for
the Credit River is Mah-ze-nah-e-gun,” which
means “a book where debts are entered.” Native
peoples also called the Credit, or a portion of
it, Chinguacousy, which translates as “young or
little pines.”51
It was Governor Simcoe’s 1796 journey, and
his subsequent orders, that led to the 1798 construction of a multi-purpose government building
at the mouth of the Credit River. It included an
inn, trading post and tavern. The inn was located
within the territory of the unceded Mississauga
Tract, the only tract of land on the north shore
of Lake Ontario retained by Mississaugas, which
contained those rivers needed to support
indigenous economies. This new government
inn was intended to offer shelter to travellers
(by water or by land) between York and Niagara.
The only road then through the primeval forest
of the Mississauga Tract was “The Dundas”
(named after the British Home Secretary,
Henry Dundas). Following a pre-existing inland
Native trail, this “great path” was commissioned
by Simcoe in 1793 as a military road, and was
nothing more than a straight wagon trail cut
through a wall of trees. The Peel stretch of
Dundas was only one section of a planned road
that would connect Kingston, York (incorporated as the City of Toronto in 1834), Niagara and
Commemorative plaque to the Government Inn
Detroit. By 1820, Dundas was the route used to
carry the weekly mail from Niagara to York and
from York to Montreal. Early Dundas Street was
also known as the “Great Western Road.”52
The Credit harbour grew in popularity at that
time, since European settlers and guests at the
inn were keen to trade with the Native people
who brought their wares and foods, including
corn, dried whortleberry cakes, maple syrup,
dough made from pounded water plants, ginseng
roots (valued as medicine by the Mississaugas),
and spruce tea to ward off scurvy.53
By 1805, Thomas Ingersoll (father of Laura Secord)
leased and operated this important government
building at the mouth of the Credit. He also used
a 23 foot wooden scow to run a lucrative ferry
service across the Credit River until 1820 when
the first log bridge was constructed. Even then,
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these early log bridges were damaged annually
by the powerful spring break up of ice. Ingersoll’s
inn hosted the land treaty negotiations in 1805
between the Mississaugas and the British. By
this time, the Mississauga people were largely
outnumbered by European settlers, and resided
on a small piece of land, which the Credit River
ran through. European settlers’ land use practices continued to deplete the natural resources
of the watersheds. First Nations’ access to these
limited resources became more difficult with
each new arrival.
It was Simcoe’s successor who, on July 31, 1805,
called together the “Credit Council Ring” on
the river’s flats for the purpose of purchasing
Mississauga lands for Upper Canada. The negotiations lasted for several days and were attended
by eight governing Chiefs from the Mississauga
First Nation and five government officials from
York. As a response to the British request for land,
the Mississaugas made a proposal with a birch
bark map reserving for themselves the valuable
shoreline of Lake Ontario to a depth inland of 300
feet, from the Etobicoke Creek west to Burlington
Bay, as well as the major river valley fisheries.
The British rejected this offer and more negotiations ensued until the treaty was finalized for all
the land between Etobicoke Creek and Burlington
Bay to a depth of six miles, excepting the Credit
Valley Reserve, and fishery flats on the Twelve
Mile, Sixteen Mile and Etobicoke Creeks. This
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35
mentioned 1787 Toronto Purchase of land
(from the Bay of Quinte to the Etobicoke Creek),
and the 1784 sale of the Grand River Valley.
Some assert that the Mississaugas at the time
had no concept of land ownership as we know it,
that for them land belonged to whomever was using
it at the time. There is some debate as to whether
or not the Mississaugas fully understood the terms
of the deals they signed. The Mississaugas would
later say they had thought they were making longterm lease deals with the Crown for their land.55
Ojibwe people harvesting wild rice, 1919.
National Museum of Canada
“Mississauga Purchase” of 70,784 acres sold for
1,000 pounds in gifts and small annual payments.
The ink was scarcely dry on the Treaty before a
survey team made base camp at the government
inn, and the former Mississauga Tract was divided
into three townships: Toronto, Trafalgar, and
Nelson (today’s Trafalgar Road divided the first
two townships). Organized settlement of today’s
Peel area began as “would-be settlers queued up
in York, frantically besieging the Upper Canada
officials to grant them Patents for the land in the
new [and most easterly] Township of Toronto.”54
The Mississauga Purchase of 1805 was but one
in a series of land sale agreements with the
Mississauga First Nation, initiated by Upper
Canada. Earlier transactions include the afore-
a. The Needs of Newcomers in Backwater Canada
During the 19th century, following in the footsteps of explorers, traders, and missionaries,
this area that would become Peel was a popular
destination for immigrating European peoples.
From the United Kingdom alone, over eight
million people emigrated during the first half
of the 19th century, many of whom arrived in
British North America. One may well wonder
what brought the newcomers in such numbers.
Many immigrants were escaping the economic
and social conditions at home, which were in
continual decline. For example, post-Napoleonic
War regiments were exasperated with their futile
search for employment in a new industrial
economy; land and resources were increasingly
scarce, and crop failures only added to the misery.
Consequently, the British government partly
subsidized a large scale migration of people
to the “New World” where the promise (and
propaganda) of economic and social prosperity
beckoned: copious land, water, and opportunity.
Administrators like Governor Simcoe were
charged with the duty of preparing the way
for the multitudes who would immigrate.
Millions of European emigrants crossed the
waters in cramped cargo ships where the conditions were always intolerable, and for some, fatal.
Passengers described a constant thirst at sea
where water rations were generally set at about
three litres per day, infants excluded. This ration
had to satisfy drinking, cooking and washing needs,
and therefore passengers were often unable to
maintain a decent level of cleanliness.56 The
water itself was often described as offensive in
odour, and abominable in taste. Impure ship’s water
may have been drawn from the river in which a
vessel stood at anchor, and stored in barrels that
reeked of their former contents. Either way, people
tried to quench their thirst by disguising the foultasting water in tea, coffee, or by adding
vinegar. As distasteful as it was, one
of the most frightening occurrences
at sea was the announcement of
water rations being reduced, since
SEE “WATER CHARTER
fluid was vital.
OF RIGHTS“ ACTIVITY
Following the 1776 American War of Independence,
the first wave of United Empire Loyalists came
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to this area from the United States. They poured
into York (Toronto) along with the new immigrants from overseas, looking for land to settle
upon. The closest unsettled and bountiful land
was the Mississauga Tract, which at that time
still belonged to the Mississauga First Nation. It
was this overwhelming demand for a land base
that led to the Mississauga Purchase. Soon thereafter, the Mississauga First Nation joined their
British allies as shock troops during the War of
1812. Following that war, a second wave of “Late
Loyalists” arrived in Upper Canada from the
American colonies, all of whom were entitled to
lands as compensation for their military service
to the Crown. The “Prince Regents” grants, for
example, were awarded to any militia man who
had served for six months or more during the
war. For many of these American ex-patriots,
Canada meant freedom but was also viewed as a
backwater place lacking in infrastructure, where
land had to be pried from the wilderness.57 Despite
these complaints, settlers arrived in droves, and
so it was that the government of Upper Canada
again needed more land to accommodate this
demand. From this brief overview, one can see
that, just like today, many early immigrants to
this region were fleeing from war, poverty, persecution and disease, seeking a better life here.
Coveting the Mississauga First Nation’s land
north of the Mississauga Purchase, Upper
Canada initiated negotiations for another vast
tract of land extending from the Old Survey line
(two concessions north of Dundas Street) up to
Georgian Bay.58 In exchange for the land, the
government gave an ox, some flour, a keg of
rum and the promise to build cabins for the 200
Mississauga people who survived the small pox
epidemic. So it was that in 1818, excepting 80
hectares set aside for their assimilated settlement, the Mississaugas signed over 262,200
hectares (648,000 acres), representing the last
of their land. With this “New Purchase,” the area
now known as Peel Region passed from First
Nations to British governance.59
C. Settling Peel
The steady influx of European settlers into Peel
continued throughout the early 19th century. “The
years between 1805 and 1835 witnessed an abrupt
transformation in the landscape of Peel, as the
new townships were surveyed in turn. The more
choice townships, like Peel’s Toronto Township
(now Mississauga) were called ‘front’ townships
because they fronted Lake Ontario with its lakebased lines of commerce, communication, and
travel between other communities. ‘Rear’ townships like Chinguacousy and Albion were remote
from the lake, and confined to arduous inland
travel. In a mere three decades, the European
settlers re-made the forests into farms, villages,
and small hamlets –all linked by a rigid pattern
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of rough roads running north from the lake and
east-west at regular intervals.”60 From wilderness
to settled homestead, the land had not been
altered as much since the glaciers, 10,000 years
before, and never so rapidly.
Most of Peel’s roads are indeed as straight as
arrows, as a result of British surveyors who, under
the visionary direction of Governor Simcoe, laid
out the roads and lot lines long before settlers
began clearing their land for farming. The British
military believed that straight roads, like those of
the Roman Empire, made travel efficient. There are
exceptions dictated by landscape, like Mississauga
Road, which as a former Native trail following
alongside the Credit River, once linked the
Mississaugas’ fishing grounds at the mouth of
the Credit with their hunting grounds inland.
Dundas Street had been the major settlement
road for the 1805 “Old Survey.” With the New
Survey of 1818, the control line was the “centre
street of communication” – Centre Road, the
first name for Hurontario Street. All of the farms
in the new townships of Toronto, Chinguacousy,
Albion, Caledon, and Toronto Gore would be
identified for their position east or west relative
to Centre Road. Survey measures at the time were
the “chain” (66 feet), the “rod” (being 1/4 of a
chain, or 16 1/2 feet), and an acre (an area measuring 10 chains by 1 chain). The distance from
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the Centre Road to the First Line Concession was
measured in chains, and a road itself was one
chain wide. Land was surveyed in 200 acre lots,
such that a farm could be located by its address;
for example, Mr. Arthur Kennedy’s family farm
(referred to below) was on Lot 9, Concession 2,
N.D.S. This meant the ninth farm plot along the
Second Concession, “North of Dundas Street.”
This surveyor’s system divided the land up into
an enormous grid.61
As a link between Lake Ontario and Lake Huron, the
Centre Road was to provide a gateway for settlers
into the interior of the province. “Hurontario”
did not follow a Native trail, but was rather surveyed as a concession side road. This was not to
say these early roads were comfortable or even
consistent thoroughfares. Most were only passable
in the driest summer, or during winter’s deep
freeze. At other times of the year, these “roads”
were much as Mrs. Simcoe once described Yonge
Street: “The road is as yet very bad; there are pools
of water among roots of trees and fallen logs in
swampy spots; and these pools, being half frozen,
are rendered still more disagreeable when the horse
plunges into them…”
Increased settlement added pressure on the government to improve the road system, especially
the major settlement roads. In the decades that
followed, Centre Road was first macadamized
from Lake Ontario, north to Dundas Street, then
planked all the way north to Snelgrove.62 Villages
and towns like Port Credit, Brampton and Caledon
developed rapidly along Centre Road, with their
taverns providing the necessary refreshment for
travellers and settlers alike. One historian remarked
that villages would spring up along the Centre
Road separated by the distance one could travel
by wagon before getting thirsty. While this is
likely a tale, the importance of the road traveller to
many of these villages should not be understated.
Like many homesteaders, the Mississauga First
Nations people were busy converting their 80
hectare parcel of forest into arable land. Under the
leadership and appeals of Kahkewaquonaby, also
known as the Reverend Peter Jones, the Mississauga’s
village was established in 1825. Known as the
“Credit River Mission” or the “Credit Indian
Reserve,” the Mississauga’s village was situated
about two kilometers north of the Credit River’s
mouth on that high west bank where the
Mississauga Golf and Country Club is now located.
A historical plaque at the site commemorates
this last home of the Mississauga people within
the Region of Peel. The Credit Indian Reserve
(CIR) was the only land within the New Survey
that deviated from the surveyors’ grid system
described above. The Reserve land was identified
by “ranges,” with parcels of land designated “Range
1 CIR, North of Dundas, Range 2 CIR…,” etc.63
In 1826, the money still owed to the Mississaugas
was used by Upper Canada to build 30 hewn log
houses. As was the practice, logs and lumber for
the houses were rafted down the Credit to the
Mission from Racey’s saw mill at Erindale. Amongst
those helping the Mississaugas construct the
buildings was fellow missionary Egerton Ryerson.
Forty-seven families lived there, and in the first
year 25 hectares were cultivated. The Mission
village thrived as more land was cleared and
cultivated. In addition to a church and school,
the village operated two saw mills that produced
up to 5,000 boards a day.
As settler homesteads and squatters began to
surround the land around their village, however,
the Mississaugas discovered they were without a
legal deed to their land, which they unsuccessfully
sought thereafter, going even to Queen Victoria
(who approved their request, but without effect at
home). Without a deed forthcoming from the
Government of Upper Canada, and with numerous
deaths from small pox, the village was deteriorating
by the late 1840s. At this dark time, under the
threat of the Indian Removal Policy64 introduced
by the new Lieutenant Governor, Sir Francis Bond
Head, the Mississaugas decided they would have
to leave the Credit River Mission and go “they
knew not where.” In 1847, an offer of help came
from their ancient enemies, the Haudenosaunee
(Six Nations Iroquois). That same year, the
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Mississaugas loaded all of their belongings onto
wagons and headed west along Dundas towards
the land they purchased at Six Nations Indian
Reserve. This land was named the New Credit
Reserve, where the Mississauga First Nation
lives and thrives to this day. The Credit River
Mission was surveyed for development by
Upper Canada in 1852.65
1. Water Transportation
Water has long been used to transport people
and materials from place to place. Human ingenuity has created infinite variations on the boat
in order to navigate all manner of water bodies.
How amazing that despite the fact that the smallest pebble sinks, people have built enormous
watercrafts capable of carrying goods and passengers by the tonne. Throughout this Peel
Water Story there are references to the ways in
which water has been used for transportation.
Today, Lake Ontario continues to play a vital
role in the international shipping of freight via the
St. Lawrence Seaway.67 As we have seen, waterways were once indispensable to the economies
and cultures of indigenous peoples; this is still
true in remote places in Canada without road
infrastructure, where Aboriginal peoples continue to depend on water for the need to move.
European explorers could only do so in the
indigenous canoes perfectly suited to Canadian
land and waterscapes.
Munendoo –The Spirit of the Credit River
“The Mississaugas believed that every living thing had a Spirit and every time an animal
was killed or a tree was cut down, tribute was paid to its Spirit in the form of a prayer or
a small offering. They believed that one of these Spirits, Munendoo, lived on the Credit
River where the water is deep near the place where the Queen Elizabeth Highway Bridge
now crosses the Credit River Valley. They would play music for Munendoo from their
fishing camps along the flats. Sometimes they would throw an offering of tobacco or
meat into the waters to appease the Spirit. Munendoo liked the Mississaugas and allowed
them to fish in this part of the river. However, the Spirit became angry when European
settlers fished near the river. The more that came here, the angrier Munendoo became.
Finally, in a rage, Munendoo caused a great flood and rode it to Lake Ontario, and never
returned.”66
Throughout the 19th century, large boats like the
side-wheeler steamer Britannia stopped in Port
Credit on daily trips between Kingston and
Hamilton, via York. Newcomers to Peel unloaded
at the wharves where immense stacks of chopped
hardwood, cut in winter, were all ready to fuel
the steam-making furnace on board.68 Another
boat designed for activity on Lake Ontario was
the “stonehooker: a wide, sturdy, schooner-rigged
boat whose crew hauled stone from the shallows
in the lake near Port Credit.”69 At the end of the
19th century, these water-rounded stones were
in great demand for the construction of many old
Toronto homes, as well as breakwaters along the
lake. With some thirty local boats carrying on this
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trade, the crews would skilfully load up to 60 tons
of stone on board before racing the competition
to Toronto where they might receive 15 dollars
for the load.
Early settlers who lived near networks of lakes and
rivers had the option to travel by water. Due to
impassable roads, or the total lack of roads, water
was either the preferred or the only way to transport. While great bodies of water like Lake Ontario
could accommodate ships, pioneers needed smaller
boats for moving goods from towns to their clearings.
For that purpose, settlers often used a flat-bottomed
boat with deep sides, called a scow. The happy discovery for many settlers was the canoe. Aboriginal
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“Petition respecting the Navigation of the River Credit. 1830.”
[a proposal that was never carried out]
To His Excellency Sir John Colborne, K.C.B. Lieutenant Governor of the Province of Upper
Canada and Major General Commanding His Majesty’s Forces,
The Petition of the Undersigned inhabitants of Toronto, and the adjacent Townships humbly
Submit,
That the River Credit, a large and powerful stream which runs through the Township of Toronto
as with the adjacent Townships of Chinguacousy, Esquising and Caledon, intersecting, on its
course, one of the finest agricultural divisions of the Province, is highly capable of improvement,
and, that were the same rendered navigable, it would open a great field, not only for agriculture
but commercial enterprise, which has been hitherto in a great measure, shut out from both.
Although many of these settlers, who have already penetrated into the back parts of these
Townships, have extensive improvements, still, they are unable to reap the full benefit of their
labour, from the difficulty of conveying their produce to market, such an undertaking as rendering
the River Credit navigable would remedy this and be productive of the most important
advantage to the west Riding of the County of York, and the adjacent Townships.
May it therefore please your Excellency to take the same into consideration and grant your
petitioners the aid of an Engineer to take the level of the said River, and report upon the
practicability of the proposed undertaking, and the best method of carrying the same into effect.
And your petitioners will ever pray.
peoples built these in two forms. One was carefully
made of birch bark and was both light and quick,
but had some disadvantages in handling. The
other was a hollowed-out cedar dugout, heavy
and awkward but more stable than birch bark.
People would choose the boat that best suited
the environment (a rapid river versus a sheltered
bay) and their purpose (hauling supplies versus
fishing). The relative merits of the scow are
compared with the canoe: “The scow is usually
preferable for a greater load and it need not be
handled like a new-born baby. It defies all winds,
whereas the canoe is difficult in wind and gets
leaks. But in good weather it is easily carried,
launched, and silent for hunting. In a canoe you
may go anywhere, pause in small eddies and float
her in two inches of water.”70 Because canoes do
upset easily and so few bridges existed at the time,
there were many accidents and drownings of
settlers who rarely knew how to swim. Without
bridges, river crossings took place at natural fords,
narrow locations along the river where the water
was shallow. A ford is known to have existed on
the Credit River at Streetsville. Ferries, sometimes
powered by winches, were also found throughout
Peel, where the need to cross water was capitalized
on by an entrepreneur.
[Numerous Signatures] 71
As bridges and roads began to appear throughout
Peel, ferries and river transportation declined as
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did the water levels themselves. Our rivers in Peel no
longer serve as the important transportation routes
they once did, but portions of these waterways
are still enjoyed today by recreational boaters.
2. “TIMBER !” –Primeval Deforestation
Peel of the period of 1880, presented to the casual
observer a most delightful panorama. Through the
course of decades, the original dense forest had given
way before the axes of the settlers, air and sunshine
had been admitted to the rich soil, and the progress
of civilization had drained the surface waters.
–William Perkins Bull 72
Generally speaking, the European settlers saw
the landscape differently than did the Aboriginal
peoples of the land; their respective world views,
material economies—and therefore their activities—
were significantly different in relation to the
environment. In fact, the manner in which settlers
were required to subsist was predetermined, via
legislation. Settlers in search of land were issued
a “location ticket” for acreage on which they were
required to carry out “settling duties” in a timely
manner. This meant that the homesteader had to
construct a permanent dwelling, clear and fence a
certain acreage, as well as complete a road width
at the property’s frontage within the first few years
of possession. When these duties were witnessed,
a patent would finally be granted for the location.
Alternatively, non-performance of settlement
duties would result in the cancellation and reissuing of the location ticket to another settler.
Regardless, the great forests got cleared. By 1900,
more than 90% of the forest cover in Peel had
been removed.73
Newcomers to Peel were met with an awe-inspiring,
if daunting, primeval forest that dated back
10,000 years from the end of the last Ice Age.
“One day, I was driving to Montreal with an
Aboriginal colleague who asked me what I
saw when I looked at trees. I said that I saw
these wonderful, living things, connected to
the earth and providing life. He asked me
what I saw when I looked at skyscrapers. I
replied that I saw a violation of the earth,
an intrusion on nature. Curious, I posed
the question to him. He replied that when
he looked at trees he saw wonderful living
things connected to the earth. And when
he looked at skyscrapers, he also saw wonderful, living things, connected to the earth.
...Or, in the words of one spiritual teacher
[in reference to “Mother Earth”]: ‘There ain’t
a thing on her that didn’t come from her.’”
–Chris Corrigan74
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According to the first surveyors’ field notes, we
know, for example, that Peel’s watersheds included
over 50 varieties of trees. These species included
gargantuan beech, basswood, and oak, with a
scattering of pine in the central watersheds’ mixed
hardwood forests. The great oaks and pines grew
to heights of 50 metres. The shore of Lake Ontario
was mainly lined with sky-scraping white pine,
white oak and some black walnut (due to the lake’s
moderating influence). There were also varieties
of maple, ash, elm, sycamore, blue beech, tulip tree,
shagbark hickory, and numerous other species,
all of which are rare today.75
The settlers’ homelands in Europe had long since
been deforested, such that the primeval forests of
Peel were strange environments indeed to these
newcomers. Since (for them) the forest looked
the same in every direction, people generally
feared getting lost in the great woods, and did
so, by straying from the paths. Furthermore, the
belief at the time was that the forest environment with its canopy shade and moist groundcover
was in fact unhealthy, and therefore it was the
duty of civilization to clear the dense forests and
“admit air and sunshine to the rich soil.”
Settler Samuel A. Walford’s journal recollects the
childhood trip that he and his father made in
the early 1830s in order to locate their claim
Crown Deed, recently acquired at the patent
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41
office in York. “We left York on June 4th with
two wagons and reached Murray’s Hill in the
evening with still a mile and a half of bush road
to face. The trip through the bush was very rough.
We arrived at our destination at 10 o’clock on
June 5. ‘Bolton’s Mills’ was not much of a clearing
at the time, the bush being in close proximity.
During our five years of residence on that 50 acre
farm (SE quarter of Lot 10, Concession 5, Albion)
we experienced all the hardships and privations
of bush life by clearing and slashing about nine
acres covered with old logs, brush, and raspberry
bushes, and adding some new land by logging,
making altogether about 30 acres of clearing.
Here we built a log house, log barn, and other
necessary buildings.”76
Imagining the life of a settler, from their perspective, we may understand how the woods
became the enemy. The seemingly endless
forests of colossal trees were what stood between
them and a life of farming on land to which they
held the lawful patent –an unattainable dream
for most in their forsaken homelands. So they
axed and sawed their way to a “dignified life” as
propertied people. Sometimes a slower, laboursaving way of destroying the trees was used, known
as “ringing.” Instead of cutting trees down, they
cut away a strip all around the trunk, which
caused the tree to slowly die. It stopped the giants
from growing and they could be felled or
burned thereafter. As irksome as the settler’s
land clearing chore was, at the same time the
forest provided many with lucrative, if unsustainable, business opportunities. For some it was
logging, for others it was operating saw mills and,
in the case of Israel Ransom in 1822 Streetsville,
it was doing trade in potash, a commodity in
plentiful supply from the burning of great trees.77
a. The Business of Wood
Prior to any settlers arriving in the Mississauga
Tract, the earliest land survey maps in what is
now southern Peel (and especially around the
Clarkson area), show large areas marked “M”
for masting. Governor Simcoe did not want to
allocate these designated forest lands for settlement, but wrote instead that they should be
reserved for the “King’s Masting,” meaning that
the giant pines and oaks would be harvested
exclusively for the Royal Navy’s ship masts and
construction, respectively. Today, the Peel District
School Board’s “King’s Masting Public School”
alludes to these forests and their fate. Later made
famous in the landscape paintings of the Group
of Seven, the lofty enormity of the white pines
was described in a local newspaper, the Gore
Gazette , in 1829:
“In Toronto Township [now Mississauga] near
Centre Road [Hurontario Street], there is a fine
tree of immense size –perhaps the largest in this
quarter of the country. About 1 yard from the
ground it is, by actual measurement, 20 1/2 feet
in circumference and appears to be little less than
that for 60 or 70 feet up. Its height (as near as can
be judged) is about 200 feet.”78
Around 1825, these giants were felled and dragged
by oxen over winter snow to the frozen Credit
River, where later, on swollen spring waters, they
were floated downstream in log drives to Lake
Ontario. Log driving was treacherous work that
sometimes claimed the lives of those who worked
to break up log jams on the Credit.79 Large
amounts of oak staves (for barrel making) were
also floated down the Credit annually to be
caught in a log boom near on the east side of
the river’s mouth. Stavebank Road in Mississauga
owes its name to the “bank of staves” that were
stored on the Credit’s shores.
At Lake Ontario, great pine rafts were chained
together, decked, and loaded with timber planks,
squared oak logs, and staves. The loaded rafts
were then towed to York by schooners, while
raft men rowed oars and lived onboard in shacks.
At York, the cargo atop was unloaded and sold
off; the large logs were rebuilt into bigger rafts
and towed hazardously down the lake. Storms
regularly broke up these rafts, with loss of life;
the oak logs sank and the pine washed ashore.
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Near Kingston, the wood rafts were rebuilt
again and floated down the St. Lawrence River
to Quebec City where they were finally taken
apart and loaded into timber ships sailing for
England.80
with the result that our
rivers became smaller and
shallower. Reduced water
flow meant that mills
could no longer operate.
Water was indeed the preferred way to move
goods, due to the dreadful roads. But this was
not always possible. The account below from
late 19th century Bolton depicts how the search
for the King’s Masting was reaching farther north
and more distant from water courses. “The saw
mill quit business about 1870, with logs getting
scarce. It was quite a sight before then to see the
long mast timbers hauled through here, the butt
end on the front wheels of a wagon and a pair of
hind wheels chained under the log about every
20 feet to the end, all drawn by 8 or 10 yoke of
oxen or 10-12 span of horses. The roads were
bad and it generally took three days to take a
mast from the [Oak] ridges to Lake Ontario.”81
Prior to large scale deforestation, Peel’s forests
played a vital role in maintaining watershed
health. These once great forests, and even the
remaining woodlots today, trap dust in the air,
regulate temperature and carbon dioxide levels,
enhance oxygen supply, and provide habitat for
wildlife, retreats for recreation, and scenic sanctuaries. The ground vegetation, an important
aspect of forests, reduces flood flows, traps sediment in water, allows for water to percolate to
underground streams aquifers, provides shade
for cold water fisheries, and prevents erosion in
riparian zones. A forested watershed absorbs far
more water than a treeless watershed, and where
trees protect the soil, relatively little silt is flushed
into waterways. Forests provide plants and animals
(including humans) with food, shelter, pure air,
and water.82 More than 95% of the forests in Peel
have been lost to agriculture and urban development since the dawn of European settlement.
Widespread tree cutting in the headwater areas
of Peel’s watersheds has caused a reduced base
flow in the major rivers and creeks. Today, much
of that former biodiversity in Peel’s Life Zones
has been lost due to deforestation. This continues
The water power of the healthy rivers was harnessed by early settlers to drive their lumber
producing saw mills. The settlers’ harvesting
practices must have simultaneously depleted
their timber supply and water power supply,
with the loss of the local lumber industry as only
one short-term consequence. The reduction of
forest cover resulted in more evaporation, less
base flow, and a lowering of the water table,
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SEE “WATER POWER“
ACTIVITY
to be a main cause of decline
in watershed health. It was the
primeval forest cover that protected
the large rivers in the ways
described previously.
SEE “THE EROSION
GAME“ ACTIVITY
3. Urbanization, Public Works and Public
Health
“There is no branch of engineering profession in
which a man can do more good to his fellow man
than in protecting and promoting the health and
cities where he can apply his beneficent art to save
life, and preserve the health of the living.–Thomas Coltrin Keefer, 1889 83
The Regional Municipality of Peel as we know it
came into being in 1974. However, regional government has existed within our boundaries since
the establishment of Peel County in 1867. From
that time, and throughout most of its more than
100 years of existence, the County of Peel was
primarily a rural and agricultural county. In 1871,
for example, when the majority of Peel’s 1,215
square kilometers (469 square miles) of land
were already occupied and under cultivation,
the population was 26,011. By 1901, the County
population had actually dropped to 21,475 and
was comprised of 17,503 rural residents and
only 3,972 urban residents, meaning that 82%
of Peel’s 1901 population was rural-based. By
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43
comparison, York County in the same year, with a
larger land base of 2,284 square kilometers (882
square miles) had a total population of 272,663
and was comprised of 45,803 rural residents
and 226, 860 urban residents. 83% of York
County’s population was urban-based, the vast
majority of whom would have been living in the
City of Toronto. By 1941, Peel County’s population was 31,539 and was comprised of 22,073
rural residents and 9,466 urban residents, meaning that 70% of Peel’s 1941 population was still
rural-based.84
As the table shows, Peel’s urban development is a
relatively recent occurrence, as compared with
places like Toronto or Hamilton. The growth of
cities is always mirrored by the rise of water
systems, such that, by the 1850s both Toronto and
Hamilton had lake-based urban water systems in
place. Alternatively, as a collection of predominantly agricultural communities, the citizens of
Peel County still supplied their own water needs
well into the first half of the 20th century. As recently as the 1930s in Port Credit, while overlooking a
Great Lake, residents did not have the convenience of water in their homes; they daily primed
and pumped their backyard wells. During the
earliest stages of the Port Credit water system in
the 1920s, four public water taps were available
at different locations along the Lake Shore Road
as a recourse for those who had trouble with their
Population Statistics for Peel and Toronto, 1821– 2004
Year
Peel
Toronto
1821
1841
1851
1861
1871
1881
1891
1901
1911
1918
1921
1931
1941
1946
1951
1956
1961
1966
1971
1976
1981
1991
1996
2001
2004
1,425
12,993
24,816
27,240
26,011
26,175
24,871
21,475
22,102
20,459
23,896
28,156
31,539
32,967
55,673
83,108
111,575
172,321
259,402
375,910
490,731
732,796
852,526
988,948
1,080,000
65,085
75,903
113,128
207,450
238,080
409,925
611,443
818,348
909,928
1,117,470
1,620,861
2,089,729
2,137,395
2,275,771
2,385,421
2,489,494
2,672,480
wells. These same taps were reportedly frozen in
December, 1931, and civic-minded neighbours
supplied one another with what water they had.85
Today, while the area municipalities of Mississauga
and Brampton have since become increasingly
urbanized, the Town of Caledon, at Peel’s northern
extreme, continues to have a large agricultural
land base. As we have seen, as a result of human
activity, Peel’s watersheds and ecosystems have
been dramatically altered over the past 200 years.
In the past and present, both types of communities
in Peel—our heavily populated and highly
urbanized centres, as well as our rural, agricultural
communities— have contributed to the decline
of local watershed health. With a view to natural
and human water systems, the sections to follow
describe some of the major, water-related issues
linked to the evolution of Peel’s rural and urban
communities.
a. Water Supply in Peel
By the 1840s, waterworks were developed in a
few larger cities around the world. In Canada,
post-War of 1812 immigration caused some
towns to swell into genuine cities by the mid19th century. The impetus to actually build such
costly systems depended entirely on the perceived
need. While the public health benefits of pure
water may not have been proven until the discovery of germ theory in the 1880s, they were
suspected as early as the 1790s. Certainly, the
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supply (and eventually the removal and treatment of sewage) would eventually become sufficiently important for a given community to
construct costly water (and later, sewer) systems.
In fact, out of necessity, it was these very projects
that often gave rise to previously non-existent,
elected, municipal bodies for the purpose of
generating funds (via taxation), and for project
supervision. Almost everywhere, the business of
city councils in their first term of office had to
do with water and sewage projects. In this sense,
Public Works involves the expenditure of public
funds for the improvement of the pubic good.86
“The Well Pump” by Gordon Rayner Sr. Painted somewhere in the vicinity of Cheltenham, in Peel County, the
well pump’s prominence symbolizes its importance to
rural inhabitants. Notice the ladder permanently affixed
to the roof of the house for quick access to extinguish
chimney fires, which were common in homes heated
with wood stoves.”
intolerable filth that accompanied population
growth in primitive urban conditions was known to
make water un-potable. The urban rich, however,
could afford to buy potable spring water in jugs
that were carted into town by water sellers. It
wasn’t always the desire to lessen disease and
death tolls that instigated the building of water
and sewer works; it was more often the threat of
unquenchable fires to property, and pocketbooks.
The provision of a clean, and abundant, water
Today, the vast majority of Peel’s more than one
million residents live in urban environments where
we depend on a complex of interconnections and
technological systems, all of which are ultimately
dependent upon natural ecosystems. Locally,
many of these vital service connections, like water
and wastewater services, are the responsibility of
Peel Region’s Department of Public Works, even
though they are relatively “invisible” and thus
beyond most people’s awareness as they go about
their daily business.
(1) Simply Water
“The true key to sanitary progress in cities is
water supply and sewerage.”
–Florence Nightingale 87
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Water supply is about quality, and the quantity
required to meet demand. People have always
had a concern for a healthy and available supply
of water. Depending on when, where and how
people live, a variety of means have been used to
secure this supply. Intact ecosystems are capable
of cleaning quantities of water, infinitely. In fact,
healthy ecosystems (of which the hydrologic cycle
is but one part) are the only proven sustainable
systems.88 In nomadic and lightly populated
societies, these natural processes, when coupled
with human prudence, have prevented problems
of water contamination. Until only 200 years
ago, all inhabitants of this country had always
obtained their water supply directly from the
natural environment.
Ontario’s first system of piped water was built in
1837 in Toronto by a private operator who
pumped water from Lake Ontario without treatment. Typical water supply sources are: surface
water (lakes, rivers, springs), rain water (gathered
from rooftops in a rain barrel), and groundwater
(aquifers accessed via a well). Since carrying water
is labour intensive, (1 imperial gallon (4.5 litres) of
water weighs 9.9 pounds (4.5 kilograms)), both
Aboriginal and early non-Aboriginal people chose
to live in close proximity to surface water, building
their lodgings near a pond or stream. In fact, sites
with “archaeological potential” (whether of First
or Native or non-Native origin) are identi-
HUMAN CYCLE
45
cows without a lot of water. Although a thousand
feet or so from the farm house there was a marshy
area, and there was good spring water up there,
but my father wasn’t mechanically inclined. It
would have been possible to pipe the water down
to the farmhouse, probably by gravity.”
fied today using a “predictive model” that is based
on the current understanding of prehistoric settlement patterns in the watershed. “Distance to
water” is one important variable within the
model that assists in the identification of a site that has “high
archaeological potential.”89
With all their compulsory setSEE “WATER WEIGHTS“
tlement duties, the earliest
ACTIVITY
European settlers in Peel
were relieved to find surface water free of industrial and other unhealthy contaminants, so that
they did not have to dig a well. Later settlers,
however, found that prime waterfront land was
already taken, and on their remote “rear locations” had to immediately set about finding a
source of water supply. Finding that source under
the ground usually involved the skills of a “water
diviner.” As described previously, Peel remained a
predominantly rural county well into middle of
the 20th century. The following recollection by
Mr. Arthur Kennedy (retired Waterworks
Engineer with Toronto Township (1950-1974)
and Director of Water & Waste with the Region
of Peel 1974-1978)) describes
a multi-source, home-based water supply system
known to Peel settlers for generations:
“I was born in 1919 on the family farm, bought
about 1880, on Second Line, or what is now called
Tomken Road, about ? mile north of Burnamthorpe
Students participate at the ‘Simply Divine’ activity station
as part of the 2004 Peel Children’s Water Festival, where
they learn some technique from a member of Regional
staff who is a trained water diviner.
Road. Yes, I was a farm boy, and our water came
out of the skies. We had rain water mostly, and
some inadequate wells. We’d take water off the
roof through a pipe that went down through our
floor into a cistern and you’d use a little hand pump
to pump water up from the cistern into a sink. We
just thought it was normal life. I often think how
we’d brush our teeth in that untreated water; it
must’ve been pretty polluted, although there wasn’t
a lot of bird life around as I remember it, so we
wouldn’t have had a lot of bird droppings. We also
had wells that were deep, and the one at the barn
was drilled even deeper, so that it went down forty
feet and then drilled beyond that, but we ended
up with only a bit of salt water. We never had
much in the way of cattle or horses because there
wasn’t enough water; you couldn’t have a lot of
Prior to well-drilling technology, settlers often
got groundwater via dug wells, usually 6-8 meters
deep. Water was drawn from dug wells in a number
of ways including a pole and pail, or a rope and
windlass. Others used a simple hand pump that
had a leather plunger and valves, which pumped
the water into pipes made of bored tamarack or
pine logs. While most farms had good potable
water, in some cases, water from open, dug well
was not of good quality due in large part to the
convenient proximity of the well to the household, its privy, waste pile, barnyard, chicken
coop, and pig sty.90
(2) Muddying the Waters
Due to a lack of understanding, individuals and
communities usually failed to effectively separate
waste from the water supply. Throughout history,
from medieval times up to the Victorian era,
records abound of stringent—yet frequently
unsuccessful—town regulations that aimed to
keep organic contaminants away from communities.
In 1760 Montreal, local government ordered
residents to pile their refuse in front of their
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HUMAN CYCLE
46
Rowland’s Shed. Windmills once dotted the rural landscape of Peel. They ingeniously harnessed wind power to do
the work of pumping groundwater from deep wells. The Rowland farm was located on lands now occupied by
Pearson International Airport, in Peel. Notice the farmer offering a bucket of water to the horses wearing harnesses
for work in the fields.
property for collection and ultimate disposal
(albeit into the St. Lawrence River). In 1832
Toronto, one observer wrote that “stagnant pools
of water, green as a leek, and emitting deadly
exhalations are to be met with in every corner of
the town –yards and cellars send forth a stench
sufficient almost of itself to produce a plague.”
Indeed, during the first half of the 19th century,
Canada’s growing cities were public health menaces:
kitchen slop, garbage, animal excrement, slaughter
house blood and offal accumulated in the lower
regions of town to become noxious cesspools.91
In 1854, as Hamilton suffered through its worst
cholera epidemic yet, the Provincial Board of Health
ruled that all stagnant water and other filth had
to be drained from about dwellings.92 Such a rule
was well intentioned, but without sewer systems,
the reality was that city dwellers regularly dumped
their storage pails, filled with human excrement and
other liquid wastes, into the streets or the nearest
water body. This “honey bucket” system is still found
is some less technically advanced communities,
including remote Canadian Arctic communities.
In any community, there is a maximum population
that the natural water systems (groundwater, for
instance) can support, while still maintaining
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water quality and quantity. When this maximum
is surpassed, the community usually requires a
different water supply and/or technology.93
This is especially true in populated communities
where there has always existed the challenge of
securing larger quantities of water, while simultaneously protecting the water source against
contamination from waste, including sewage.
Sewers and drains are not new ideas, however.
Archaeological excavations in India’s Punjab
region, for example, reveal how bathrooms and
covered drains were common there 4,000 years
ago. Ancient Incan societies in South America
also had sewage systems and baths, as did the
Greeks and Egyptians two millennia ago. The
Romans, of course, are well known for their
aqueduct water supply and drainage systems,
providing high standards of urban sanitation.
Likewise, improving the taste and smell of
water is ancient knowledge: East Indian lore
of 4,000 years ago tells of keeping water in
copper vessel in sunlight, and then filtering it
through charcoal and sand or gravel. Ancient
urban peoples like the Egyptians, Greeks, and
Romans used settling ponds and added lime as
a precipitant before filtering the water through
earthenware jars.94 But with the fall of Rome,
sanitary engineering in Western societies went
into eclipse until the mid-19th century when
urban governments in Britain adopted modern
sewage-disposal practices, soon replicated in
North America.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
47
Curriculum Connections 3
“As two independents halves of the whole
human water cycle, water and wastewater
systems are in fact one system that functions
within the ultimate water system, the
hydrologic cycle.”
Human activity within local watersheds
affects both natural and human water
cycles, with significant impacts on water
quality and quantity.
• Gr.1
Sci/Tech: Life Systems: Characteristics & Needs
of Living Things
• Gr.2
Sci/Tech: Earth & Space Systems: Air & Water
in the Environment
Sci/Tech: Life Systems: Growth & Changes in
Living Systems
• Gr.4
Sci/Tech: Life Systems: Habitats &
Communities
Social Science: Canada & World Connections:
Canada’s Provinces, Territories & Regions
• Gr.5
Social Science: Heritage & Citizenship:
Early Civilizations
Sci/Tech: Life Systems: Human Organ Systems
• Gr.10
• Gr.7
Science: Chemistry
History: British North America
• Gr.11
Geography: Natural Resources
Social Science: Canada & World Connections:
Urban and Rural Communities
Science: Waste Management
Sci/Tech: Life Systems: Interactions within
Ecosystems
Geography: The Americas
Sci/Tech: Matter & Materials: Pure Substances
& Mixtures
• Gr.12
• Gr.3
Social Science: Heritage & Citizenship: Early
Settlements in Upper Canada
• Gr.9
Technological Education: Integrated Technologies
Chemistry: Chemistry in the Environment
Sci/Tech: Earth & Space Systems: Earth’s Crust
CWS: History: Canada: History, Identity
and Culture
• Gr.8
Geography: Patterns in Human Geography
Sci/Tech: Earth & Space Systems: Water Systems
CWS: The Environment and Resource
Management
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Cattle in the Credit River, 1950s
Unfortunately, until the revival and modernization of urban sanitation practices, the failure to
separate waste from the water supply meant that
water contamination was rife, with lethal results at
times. (See Appendix B for article: “Use of Credit
River by area cattle may cause increase in bacteria
level”.) Often, the potential benefits of new water
(and even sewage) systems were not felt; death rates
that decreased due to water supply again increased
due to polluted water. During the 19th and early
20th centuries in Ontario, many communities had
new waterworks, but no sewer system, such that
communities had abundant untreated water quantity, but the quality was poor. The result was surface
drainage problems and overflowing cesspools in
low-lying areas. This described Streetsville in 1912
when they began operating a distribution system
where raw river water was “pumped from the Credit
River, directly into mains”; at that time there were
no drainage nor sewage systems in the village.95
Throughout North America, community water
supply systems generally preceded sewerage systems
by 5 to 50 years.96
Even when sewer systems did arrive in communities to remove sewage from a community’s
immediate surroundings, this same sewage often
contaminated the water source. For example, in
19th century London, England, the Thames River
was the city’s source of water; that same river
received raw sewage from London with sewer
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outfall pipes frequently located beside water
intake pipes. Unknown to authorities at the time,
this practice lead to frequent epidemics of waterborne diseases, like cholera. In 1828, a British
Royal Commission recommended that water
intake pipes be moved upstream from sewage
outfall pipes, a recommendation which, although
based on aesthetic and not health reasons, resulted
nevertheless in improved health for the London
population. Alas, 60 years later and closer to home
“Typhoid Fever had been endemic very largely,
ever since the water-pipes for the supply of the Town
of Sarnia were laid. The main, which is laid out
into the bay some 280 feet, is not more than 150
feet away from the point at which the main trunk
sewer debouches [empties] into the bay.”98
Instances of untreated sewage outlets being placed
close to water intakes continued; such system
weaknesses existed in Ottawa too where in 1912,
1,378 people died of typhoid due to cross contamination from broken water and sewage pipes in
close proximity to one another.97 Engineering has
since minimized the potential for such cross connections causing contamination of potable water.
The realization that sewage was contaminating
a given water source only gradually led to costly
system improvements. Toronto has had a water
system since 1837, yet it was finally in 1909 that
a sewage disposal system was built that included
sedimentation and removal of solids, with the
HUMAN CYCLE
49
effluent being discharged into the lake 7.2 kilometers east of the city’s waterworks intake.
Consultants argued that there was no danger of
pollution (to the city’s supply, at least) because the
lake currents went from west to east. Without
sewage sterilization, the Water Commission Board
unsuccessfully opposed this plan, because the
sewage disposal works seriously polluted the raw
lake water. The vulnerability of
Toronto’s drinking water to
pollution was ultimately
realized and influenced the
city’s early leadership in
filtration and purification
SEE “IS THAT WATER
CLEAN?“ ACTIVITY
techniques.99
(3) Municipal Water
“Progress in this field [of water supply] is one of
the most delicate means for accurately measuring
the evolution of municipal ideas, especially as
regards freedom from disease and, comparatively,
is a work of common advantage both as regards
household and business convenience and protection against fire.”100
Water and wastewater go hand in hand. When a
waterworks is built, a simultaneous need exists
for paved streets, drainage, and sewer systems.
As two interdependent halves of the whole human
water cycle, water and wastewater systems are in
fact one system that functions within the ultimate
water system: the hydrologic cycle. That “sewerage
and water supply were broad and comprehensive
systems” was understood by the experts early on.
Yet, at the dawn of Ontario’s water and wastewater systems, as stated in the First Annual Report
from the Provincial Board of Health in 1882:
“the method for carrying out these [systems were]
not always thorough or well advised, [and] have
not been sufficiently understood by the municipal
authorities undertaking them; or some predominating
self-interest has prevented their having been thoroughly executed.101
As detailed below, the very first system of piped
water in Peel was in the Town of Brampton of 1882.
From that time until 1969 when the centralized
South Peel Water System began, there were a
number of separate and independent waterworks
throughout Peel, operated by their respective
municipalities, in some cases through a Public
Utilities Commission, as in the case of Streetsville.
As a rural county, Peel had several populated
communities, each remote from the other. The
waterworks engineers of the day remember the
set up in Toronto Township (now Mississauga) in
the years just prior to the South Peel Water System:
“Before the South Peel System, pipes came across
Dundas Street for Erindale. But then with the
Erindale Woodlands development of the late fifties,
we put in a 14” water main along Burnhamthorpe
Road for increased capacity. We hooked onto the
trunk that went to Malton, then went north up
Cawthra Road to Burnhamthorpe and east across
Burnhamthorpe to Dixie Road, and up Dixie. We
hooked the pipe on at Cawthra and Burnhamthorpe
and took it all the way across to the Erindale
Woodlands development. This was a long stretch
of water, spread thin through great lengths of pipe
spidering out from this development to the next.”
The Peel Water Story includes historical case studies
for three Peel communities: Streetsville, Brampton,
and Bolton. At the outset, each community,
because of their different physical environments
and proximity to water, required different local
water supply strategies. The growth of communities is always mirrored by the rise of water
systems, and indeed human population growth
is spurred on wherever abundant, clean water is
available. The established policy is to expand
water systems as required in order to keep slightly
ahead of the increasing demand for water. In Peel,
and beyond, a complex of factors like health,
wealth, growth and governance precipitated the
creation of water and wastewater systems, which
are inherently collective. Water pipes connect
independent households into communities of
consumers and give rise to a “public interest”
that transcends individual interests. By 1900, water
supply had ceased to be a capitalist undertaking
and most Canadian municipalities owned and
operated their own waterworks. Municipal gov-
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ernments built or bought waterworks and
found a ready market for the debentures issued
to finance these socialized capital projects.102
Water and government share a common modern
history in Canada. Government support at all
levels has facilitated the learning process that
went on over the years as water technologies
were developed and adopted. In most urban
areas, regional districts have been created for
the purpose of water planning.103 In spite of
the awesome complexity of interactions set in
motion with our daily twists of the tap, public
attention to water supply issues seems to be drawn
only by crisis, unfortunately. Today, pure water
is available to most Canadians no matter where
they live, such that we take good water for granted
– a tendency that the Region of Peel is working
to improve, so that Peel citizens will understand
their connection to the human and natural water
systems, of which they are an integral part.
b. Sewage Happens
Sewage is a fact of life. As we have seen, sewage,
like all waste, must be properly managed in
order to maintain environmental (including
human) health. Historically, and for reasons
having mostly to do with expense, sewage systems
were not built at the same time as waterworks,
but only later. The campaign for sewer systems
was accelerated with the discoveries of Louis
Pasteur in the 1880s, which demonstrated that
many pandemic diseases were waterborne and
passed via invisible micro-organisms. Led by a
fight from doctors, civil engineers, and social
reformers, most urban centres in Canada had
constructed sewers by 1914.
Sewer systems themselves simply transport sewage
from one place to some other place; but where
does sewage end up? The most popular choice
early on was to dump raw sewage into the most
convenient body of water; the only real change
in practice therefore being the removal of sewage
from the community to some more remote
location. At the end of the pipe, effluent would
be carried away by the tide, or current, and diluted with clean water, where, it was argued, it would
be purified by natural chemical reactions. In 1887,
the Provincial Board of Health recommended
that in lieu of expensive chemical treatment, the
City of Hamilton carry sewage out into Lake
Ontario to a sufficient depth and distance so as
to “obtain such a dilution of the sewage as will
prevent its being in any sense a nuisance.”104
The mantra was “Dilution is the solution to
pollution.” Unfortunately, urban populations
eventually overloaded these natural systems,
and dumping merely transferred serious pollution problems from the ground to the water;
this, despite the fact that increased bacteriological
knowledge (about the role of micro-organisms
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in the breakdown organic waste) was making
sewage treatment a reality. Up to the first decade
of the 20th century, all municipalities on the shores
of the Great Lakes used the lakes as a giant depository for all their raw sewage.
In 1916, the Commission of Conservation
Canada released its report “Water Works and
Sewerage Systems of Canada” in which it stated:
“The problems with obtaining adequate water
supplies for both urban and rural centres in Canada
are yearly becoming more acute. This is due to the
rapid growth of large centres of population, coupled
with the ever increasing difficulty of keeping the
sources of supply free of pollution...The subject of
sewerage and sewage disposal is given more space
than previously, as the question of stream pollution
is becoming very serious in Canada...Even where
water systems are provided with filtration plants,
there is a great danger of overloading the filters if
the source of supply is grossly polluted by raw sewage.
The use of water filters should be only an additional factor of safety in an operation which should
begin with proper treatment of sewage.105
At the time of that report, Ontario reported 95
sewer systems, only 35 of which had some form
of sewage treatment. Of the 60 untreated sewage
systems, 10 disposed of their raw sewage directly
into Lake Ontario. Communities’ wide-spread
postponement of expensive sewage treatment
HUMAN CYCLE
51
facilities only delayed the inevitable: raw sewage
polluted the water supply, at which point a reactionary “solution” followed. In Peel County, both
Brampton and Streetsville were reported to have
waterworks systems by 1916, but only Brampton
reported having a sewer system, along with a
septic tank. (See Brampton Case Study.)
By the late 1800s, Canadian cities began to
compete for immigrants and capital. Communities
wanted to attract manufacturers by boasting of
their good municipal health record. It was recognized that environmental pollution (like aquatic
life and beaches ruined by raw sewage) hurt the
economy. Nevertheless, by 1950, still only 50%
(334 of 667) of Canadian communities with sewage
systems actually had sewage treatment plants. At
this time in Peel, like elsewhere, local communities
had their own sewage treatment plants.
It was the post-war population explosion in Metro
Toronto that overloaded all their sewage plants,
and contributed to the provincial government’s
decision to create a single authority, the Ontario
Water Resources Commission (OWRC), in order
to coordinate water supply, sewage, and drainage
(storm water sewers) across the province. In the
case of Toronto, it was decided that large plants
discharging treated effluent directly into Lake
Ontario would be less expensive and more
practical.
Older municipalities, like Toronto, with dated
infrastructure, often include “combined sewers”
where stormwater (rain) sewers join wastewater
sewers and terminate at a wastewater treatment
facility. With precipitation, these combined sewer
systems receive high volumes of run-off water,
which continue to overload sewerage systems.
Until recently, the remedy was separate sewage
systems, implying that surface run-off requires
no treatment. But this is no longer true. Animal
faecal matter, automobile fluids, and road salts all
contribute to the deterioration of water quality in
local water courses that receive untreated
stormwater.
In 1957, the OWRC set pollution standards and
began to assist municipalities in building treatment
works. By the mid-1960s, the federal government
was providing additional funding through the
International Joint Commission, an independent
binational organization established by the Boundary
Waters Treaty of 1909. (Its purpose is to help
prevent and resolve disputes relating to the use
and quality of boundary waters and to advise
Canada and the United States on related questions.)
Today the province monitors all industrial and
municipal discharges via the Ministry of the
Environment. To this day in Canada, municipal
sewage is treated and disposed of in a variety of
ways. Numerous municipalities continue to
discharge raw sewage into local water systems.
Most employ primary treatment to remove large
solids. Remaining sludge is buried, incinerated,
or used as fertilizer and effluent discharged into
water after chlorine disinfection. Secondary
treatment uses activated sludge, like in Peel.
(See the description of Peel’s current water and
wastewater systems, below). Tertiary treatment
can further reduce phosphorous levels.
c. Public Health and Waterborne Disease
In 1842, Great Britain’s Health of Town Act
“laid down the requirements of public health
as being a good water supply; the carrying
away below ground of all human waste, and the
prompt removal of all garbage from dwellings
and streets.” Towards the last quarter of the 19th
century, at 18 per 1,000, Ontario was considered
to have a dreadful mortality rate, much higher
than British figures where preventative measures
resulted in a 4.5% decrease in the death rate
between 1872 and 1882.106 Canadian leaders were
impressed with the results of preventative action
in Great Britain and leading American cities.
Cholera morbus is perhaps the most infamous of
plagues to visit 19th century Canada. This deadly
epidemic of “Asiatic cholera” surfaced in India
in 1826, Britain by 1831, and North America a
year later. As a preventative response to the epidemic, the government of Canada established a
quarantine station on Grosse Ile, an island in
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See
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peelwat
the mouth of the St. Lawrence River, the gateway
to North America. Grosse Ile was an inspection
station for incoming immigrant ships, designed
to prevent sick passengers from continuing their
journey, and thereby halting the spread of disease
within Canada.
Because the causes of diseases, like cholera,
were not yet understood, procedures at the
quarantine station were flawed. Many healthy
people were unnecessarily confined to Grosse
Ile where “you would there behold every variety
of disease, vice, poverty, filth, and famine...
human misery in its most disgusting forms.”107
Others were infected at the station through
group examinations where, for example, the
medic would use the same tongue depressor
for every person in the queue. Without an
understanding of incubation periods, still other
passengers, who seemed well at Grosse Ile,
journeyed on to Canada, were later stricken,
and spread the disease to the local population.
Ignorance was the root cause of these epidemics.
There was no recognition that cholera was a
waterborne disease.
The cholera epidemic hit Quebec City hard,
being the first stop beyond Grosse Ile, where
there were reported 80 burials a day during
the summer of 1832. The speed with which
the disease swept across the country that year
This Puck Magazine cartoon of 1883 shows immigration
officials repulsing a cholera-bearing ‘Angel of Death’ – a
comment on the tightening of quarantine and sanitation
laws after the cholera pandemic.
is evident from this reported list of unprecedented
cholera infections:
Grosse Ile - June 3;
Quebec City - June 8;
Montreal - June 9;
Prescott - June 16;
Brockville - June 19;
Kingston - June 20;
Cornwall, June 21;
York - June 21 (via steamboat from Kingston);
Cobourg - June 27;
Brantford - June 28;
Burlington Bay - July 7;
Hamilton - July 21.108
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Evidence suggests that cholera did
pass through Peel County too, but as a
rural area, and compared with urban
ports, Peel residents were relatively
unaffected by the scourge. Conversely, as major
ports receiving legions of immigrants, York
(Toronto) and Hamilton saw cholera spread
quickly, with death coming often within hours of
symptoms, and continuing to rage throughout
the summer until colder weather caused it to wane.
In most Canadian cities at the time, open air
drains were the best examples of sewers. In 1834,
during the height of Montreal’s cholera epidemic,
one observer noted that the ditches were receptacles “for every abomination that rendered the
public thoroughfares almost impassable, and
loaded the air with intolerable effluvia, more likely
to produce, than to stay the course of the plague.”109
The observer’s reference to “intolerable air” hints
at the dominant theory of disease at that time.
Throughout most of the 19th century, medical
doctors knew nothing about bacteria or viruses;
they believed disease was caused by foul air, known as
“miasma,” arising from filth, marshes, carcasses and
compost. In 1849, a report from Britain’s General
Board of Health pronounced that diseases have
their origins in an “epidemic atmosphere,” such
that emigrant ships stricken with typhus, cholera
or yellow fever were to be regarded not as engines
of infection but as vessels unfortunate enough to
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53
have passed through a poison-charged layer of
air.110 Although this “miasmatic theory” was
inaccurate, it did nevertheless motivate sanitary
laws and the construction of sewers, since gases
arising from closets, privy vaults, house drains, cellars,
cess pools, and ditches were regarded as the source
of virtually every communicable disease.
This theory of disease persisted even after British
Dr. James Snow published his pamphlet, “Mode
of Communication of Cholera,” which accurately
stated that “cholera was swallowed in the drinking
water and it spread by the excretions of the sick,
infecting the water drunk by the healthy.”111
Snow’s “contagion theory” was ignored, lingering
as just one of many theories about the causes
of cholera. The belief persisted that cholera was
limited to the poor, dirty, and overcrowded sections
of towns, where the disease visited only the
unclean, intemperate, and sinful. It wasn’t until
the 1880s with Louis Pasteur’s discovery of bacteriology and “germ theory” that the connection
between pure water and public health was
proven and more widely accepted.
(1) Boards of Health in Peel
As a response to the 1832 cholera plague, Upper
Canada passed an act to set up local Boards of
Health in 1833 so as to better prepare for the
anticipated waves of immigration and disease.
Some towns were disinfected from top to bottom
and had bans on public gatherings. The general
lack of public health provisions at the time reflected
the primitive nature of urban Canadian life prior
to Confederation. With population growth, urban
filth invariably contaminated drinking water.
In 1854, Hamilton was in the throes of its worst
cholera epidemic yet. During July and August
alone, 552 people died of cholera in that city.
(11,000 people died of cholera in London,
England the year before). Medics worked zealously but did so in ignorance and filth. In the
midst of this plague, Hamilton City Council was
motivated to take the first steps towards the costly
construction of a waterworks by passing By-law
Number 110 “For Supplying the City of Hamilton
with Water.” Meanwhile, with local Board of
Health support, overworked physicians withdrew
from the dying poor, and free, ineffective medications were dispensed for all. Fear increased as
people fled the city, and City Council declared a
day of fasting and prayer on August 7, 1854, to
be delivered from the plague. With the coming
of autumn and cooler weather the disease abated, and in September the competition was
announced for a waterworks in Hamilton.
In Peel, the first local Board of Health was set
up as early as 1862 by the Town of Brampton,
with a population then of 2500. Due to local
disasters and foreign successes, public health
continued to gain momentum, and in 1882
Ontario created the Provincial Board of Health,
which soon distributed a general sanitary survey, province-wide. Decades later, these first
reports on local sanitary conditions were summarized by William Perkins-Bull:
“In Peel, like every other county of the province,
homes, public buildings, and schools, were
overcrowded and poorly ventilated; sanitary
conveniences were...breeding-places for germs,
and water was tainted. In many communities,
tanneries and piggeries lay in close proximity to
dwellings; the reek of stagnant creeks polluted the
atmosphere, and crammed graveyards were
allowed to drain into wells. Through lack of
proper drainage, cellars were often flooded.”112
In 1882, with a population of 700, the Village of
Streetsville recorded that “excreta was put in pits
that were conveniently placed without regard
to the proximity of wells. No enquiry had been
made as to whether disease resulted from this
practice. Slop water was ‘carelessly thrown out’,
and vegetable and other refuse was cast upon
manure heaps. No precautions were taken against
contagious diseases.”
One such highly contagious disease is diphtheria,
spread by bacteria that are airborne in exhaled
water vapour droplets. Once called “the strangling
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angel of death,” diphtheria was pandemic in
Caledon’s Silvercreek community in 1861, and
within two weeks took the lives of six children
from one extended family.113 By 1884, the
Ontario Board of Health reported much diphtheria and typhoid “almost everywhere” proving
that the necessary conditions for disease continued.
That same year, Dr. James Algie submitted a
report to the Caledon Board of Health in which
he identified the greatest problem as being the
contamination of well water by drainage from
barn yards, believing that these conditions produced local outbreaks of disease. He noticed the
negative effect of slaughter houses too, in Alton,
where five neighbouring houses got drinking
water from one well. Those five households
reported three deaths in three years from the
croup, one death from diphtheria, as well as
numerous non-fatal illnesses. The doctor’s
recommendation to remove the slaughter house
was finally acted upon with no diphtheria
reported thereafter. Dr. Algie’s report said that
while public health in rural Caledon Township
was above average, this was due more to “natural
advantage than sanitary conditions.” He pointed
out that the effects of poor sanitation around
rural dwellings were not as widespread as they
were in the villages like Alton, Belfountain, or
Caledon East, where houses were closer together.
In 1887, Caledon Township reported 27 cases of
typhoid with 4 resulting deaths; 6 cases of scarlet
fever with one death, and 17 cases of diphtheria
with 2 deaths. For the same year, Brampton
reported 6 cases of diphtheria, and 8 cases of
typhoid with 2 deaths. Streetsville was also visited
by diphtheria in 1889. Throughout the latter part
of the 19th century, Peel residents continued to
fall sick and die from waterborne diseases, even
as there was increased knowledge about bacteria
and the role of micro-organisms in the breakdown
of organic waste. This knowledge, coupled with
pressure from doctors, engineers and social
reformers, hastened the adoption of sewage
treatment.114
In the years around 1912, Ottawa suffered a
severe outbreak of typhoid, with 1,378 people
dying from the disease in that year alone. In this
case, the contamination of drinking water was
caused by broken sewage pipes, which led to the
epidemic. Toronto was also visited by a typhoid
epidemic in 1910 when many people died. As a
result, the water supply intake pipe was extended
much further out into Lake Ontario, beyond the
sewage-polluted Toronto Bay, and the chlorination
of raw water was successfully begun for the first
time. Within one year of chlorination, the typhoid
death rate in Toronto fell from 44 to 22 per
100,000 people. By 1912, Toronto’s first filtration
plant was completed and the typhoid rate soon
fell by half again, and steadily thereafter.116 A
similar positive trend was shown throughout the
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province: in 1882, for every 100,000 people, 180
died people died of typhoid or similar diseases
in Ontario. Between 1903 and
1913, that rate decreased to 24.4
deaths per 100,000. By 1950, the
death rate from typhoid in the
province was 0.02 per 100,000
SEE “LIFE EXPECTANCY
people.
AND ACCESS TO SAFE
WATER“ ACTIVITY
This improvement was due in
large part to the work of civil engineers, like
Thomas Keefer, who during the second half of
the 19th century designed waterworks in cities
throughout Canada. As discussed above, water
treatment alone was only a temporary solution.
Until sewage was properly treated before being
returned to natural water systems, safe drinking
water would be increasingly difficult to provide.
Again: water and wastewater systems are in fact
one system—two interdependent halves of the
whole human water cycle—that functions
within the ultimate water system: the
hydrologic cycle.
The 1980s were declared the “World Water
and Sanitation Decade” by the United Nations,
with the objective of providing abundant, clean
water to all people of the world. Nevertheless,
the World Health Organization (WHO) reports
that contaminated water continues to kill
50,000 people daily, or 18 million people
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55
TOP CAUSES OF DEATH IN ONTARIO 1882
1.
phthisis (Tuberculosis)
2.
anaemia
3.
old age
4.
pneumonia
5.
diphtheria
6.
heart disease
7.
typhoid fever (from salmonella)
8.
scarlatina
9.
diarrhea (from infected water)
10.
convulsions
TOP CAUSES OF DEATH IN PEEL 1996
1.
heart disease
2.
cancer
3.
stroke
4.
Cardio pulmonary disease
5.
pneumonia
6.
diabetes
7.
falls
8.
suicide
9.
motor vehicle accidents 115
annually around the globe. Outbreaks of
cholera, typhoid, and hepatitis still occur in
places throughout the world today. Conditions
beyond our borders demand international attention since diseases can be transmitted anywhere.
Such lethal consequences touched Ontarians close
to home with the tragic events that occurred in
Walkerton in 2000. In a province where 98% of
the population receives abundant, clean water at
the turn of a tap, Walkerton is a poignant example
of what can happen when proper water treatment
(and in particular, chlorination) is lacking. It is
a throwback to Ontario’s earlier days, and indeed
Peel’s own history, when illness and death from
contaminated water were not uncommon.
4. Three Peel Communities, in Three
Municipalities, on Three Watersheds
In this section of the Peel Water Story, we will
trace the history of three Peel communities.
These community case studies are intended to
convey both the diversity and similarities that
exist within our Region, and throughout our
history. Each of the three communities is found
in a different watershed. Each one belongs to a
distinct area municipality. Elements have been
chosen from the rich historical record of each
community in order to help the reader better
understand, by highlighting, the range of water
issues that affect all communities. These histories
“Cholera outbreaks continue”
On Feb. 18, 2004, in between updates on
SARS and Avian influenza, the World Health
Organization reported recent outbreaks of
cholera in 6 countries (Burundi, Cameroon,
Mali, Mozambique, South Africa and
Zambia) involving more than 14,000 cases
and resulting in 297 deaths. These outbreaks
remind us that, among the sensational and
emerging infectious diseases, old enemies such
as cholera continue to plague poor communities
in Africa, Asia and South America.
Clinical management: Symptoms can rapidly
progress from diarrhea, abdominal cramps,
nausea and vomiting, to dehydration, shock and
death. Treatment with rapid and appropriate
rehydration and electrolyte replacement is
critical because most deaths occur within the
first 24 hours.
Prevention: Two oral cholera vaccines are
available in Canada but are not recommended
for routine use by travellers to cholera-endemic
areas unless they are at high risk of exposure
(e.g., health care professionals working in
disease-endemic areas or aid workers in refugee
camps). Travellers not at high risk are advised
to exercise general food and water precautions.117
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are examined through the “lens of water” and
demonstrate the vital role that water has played,
and continues to play, in the life of Peel.
a. Water Power in Streetsville on the Credit
Known today as “The Village in the City,”
Streetsville is a community within the City of
Mississauga, nestled between the sheltering hills
of the Credit River to the east and Mullet Creek
to the west. It was Timothy Street, the United
Empire Loyalist, who in 1818 surveyed the area,
and thereby prepared the former Mississauga
Tract for European settlement. Before this time,
few pioneers had actually settled on the Credit
watershed. The War of 1812 and its aftermath
had brought increased traffic between Niagara
and York and resulted in a growing population
along the banks of the Credit River.
One Peel pioneer remembered how “In the early
days there were plenty of trees from which a man
could throw up a log cabin for his family and a
shelter for his animals, but he needed sawn lumber
for floors and doors.”118 Furniture, boats, and
plank roads also required lumber. Timothy
Street catered to that need by building a brush
dam and saw mill by 1821. As early as 1819, the
County of Peel was proudly promoting the Credit
River as “a great source of wealth for its inhabitants...it is not only a good watering stream, but
there are endless mill privileges the whole length
of the river which has not largely been used.”119
In fact, the Credit River was known as one
of the best mill streams in Ontario, due to
its power. Along its banks, water power was
exploited and industry flourished throughout
the 19th century.120
Anticipating a population increase and demand
for flour, Street also built a grist mill. Wheat had
already developed as Peel’s first export crop in the
early 1800s, and grist mills grew in importance.
So it was that local farmers brought their grain
to “Street’s mill,” which eventually became known
as Streetsville.121 Timothy Street was not the only
entrepreneur of course; by 1827 the Credit River
was home to at least 15 sawmills and 9 grist mills.
In those days, the river was often filled with logs
being driven downstream from where they were
felled to a saw mill. The very first recorded burial
in Streetsville was that of a young log driver,
Lachlan McLachlan, who drowned in the Credit
River while trying to break up a log jam.
Lumber was just one of the industries that made
Streetsville a village of remarkable activity by
1835, attracting all kinds of businesses requiring
water power. By 1850 Streetsville had a population
of 1,000; seven years later there were 1,500 people.
Streetsville had become a prosperous place in
rural Peel. Barbers’ Woollen Mills was a major
employer of local people for many years. That
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same mill became a textile
factory in 1884, and then a
flour mill in 1916, all using
the same water power technology to run their businesses. For the 19th century
and beyond, mills were
very important to the life
of the village; it was not
unusual to see wagons of
grain lined up for a mile
along the approaching road.
The Overshot Wheel
Mills harnessed the power of the river by using a
water wheel, of which there were two main kinds.
The older style uses a large “undershot wheel,”
which is outside the mill building and is lowered into the river, where the current causes it
to spin. The undershot wheel would be moved
up or down according to the season and depth of
the water. The “overshot wheel” is more sophisticated; it is positioned within the mill building,
at the end of a channel or “mill race,” which
diverts water out of the river and sends it racing
down and over the wheel where the powerful
rush of falling water spins the wheel very quickly.
The number of mills on the river quickly became
a great concern to the settlers and officials for
many reasons. The first being the unsanitary
practices of industry that began to impact river
HUMAN CYCLE
57
water quality; the second being the damage
incurred to the salmon run, which was a source
of food and commerce. Due to the degraded
quality of the river water, inhabitants of young
Streetsville turned to alternative sources of
potable water, namely groundwater wells and
rainwater cisterns. But Streetsville remained a
river community yet, and its people were “river
people” well beyond the middle of the 20th century.
The Credit River did indeed “prove a great
source of wealth”, in every sense of the word.
One senior Streetsville resident, Mr. Bill Evans,
describes the river of his youth in the 1930s:
“The river was our skating rink and swimming
hole down there. We had good fishing there too.
There was lots of bass, Brown Trout, and Specked
Trout in there at one time. That was our place
of recreation.” It was the mill dams that stemmed
the Credit’s flow, making mill ponds where people
would fish, swim, skate and boat. For generations
of Streetsvillers, the dam is a part of the river.
At the dawn of the last century a major shift
occurred in how Streetsville harnessed power
from the Credit River. Much of the technology
was the same: a dam directed water to a mill race
which turned a wheel, but instead of being connected to a millstone or saw blade, now the wheel
was turning a turbine generator and producing
electricity. This new source of decentralized,
Ms. Durie on Streetsville Swing Bridge.
Enormous ice on Credit banks at spring
break-up.
The Village of Streetsville proper was clustered on the west bank of the Credit
River, with one bridge crossing the river on Main Street. The Durie family farm
was on the east bank of the river, some distance south of the bridge and directly
across the river from the Reid Milling Company. In order to provide a short cut
across the river for family and mill employees, Mr. Durie Sr. built a swing bridge
over the Credit, which remained there and was used by many people throughout
the 1930s and 1940s. (A similar bridge is found today at Belfountain Park). Mr.
Wes Durie explains: “Reid Milling supplied the 3/4 inch steel cable and my dad built
the swing bridge between two huge maple trees, one on each side of the river. For
years, this was our short cut to school. The swing bridge was about six feet above
the water, but when the ice would come in the spring, it was SO close! It was
the ice that finally took that bridge out.”
SEE “WHERE DOES THE
SNOW GO?“ ACTIVITY
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“portable” power delivered the final blow to
riverside mills, which were already approaching
obsolescence since the advent of steam-powered
machinery.
Today on Streetsville’s Queen Street, a plaque
beside the power plant’s actual water wheel
reads: “This water wheel from the Streetsville
Public Utility Commission (P.U.C.) dates back
to 1907, and provided the first electricity to the
area. A visible reminder of the contribution of
the Credit River to the progress of the Streetsville
community.” The village Council had realized
the river’s potential to produce electricity, so
they purchased a riverside property and the
P.U.C. built a power plant on the foundation of
the derelict Hyde flax mill. At a cost of $20,000,
a concrete dam was also constructed stretching
Hockey Game on Wet Ice. ca. 1910. Spectators look on as children play hockey on the thawing ice at the Streetsville
190 feet across the river and providing a 12-foot Dam’s millpond. The player in the foreground sports a ‘Streetsville Thistles’ hockey jersey.
head of water. On February 3, 1908, Streetsville
began operating one of the very first municipally- power-consuming electrical appliances in the 1930s, between the railway and the municipality, a
water supply pump was connected to the power
owned power plants. The Streetsville Review wrote Streetsville’s generating station could no longer
plant’s generator shaft. Credit River water was
that “the darkness that enveloped the village has keep pace with demand. By December of 1934,
pumped and piped through the village to the
Streetsville joined the Ontario Hydro grid.
at last disappeared, the light breaking forth on
CPR’s Streetsville Junction where it was stored
Monday night. Already upwards of fifty takers
If the lack of a railway in 1867 caused Streetsville in a 60,000 gallon wooden water tower. This
have been secured because of the exceedingly
low price charge…six cents per 1000 kilowatts.”122 to lose the contest (to Brampton) for Peel’s title water was used to refill the steam engines that
passed through Streetsville, where the line from
With the average household having only electric of “County Town,” the eventual arrival of the
Toronto forked into two lines that went to London
lighting, the Village’s supply of electric power was iron road brought with it the added bonus of
and Orangeville, respectively. The water agreement
piped water for the village. In 1912, following
sufficient for the citizens needs for a quarter
saw the CPR pay the village $500 annually for
several years of negotiations and planning
century, but with the introduction of new
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the daily supply of 10,000 gallons. The CPR
installed and maintained the six-inch cast iron
pipe, and allowed the village to connect to the pipes
for fire hydrants and home service. Streetsville
became one of the earliest communities in
Ontario to have a good water supply and the
new wonder of electric power.
Some residents of Streetsville during the first
half of the 20th century share how it was that,
with the arrival of raw river water via the CPR
pipes, they suddenly had three sources of water
at home. “Before the river water came along, we
already had what they call ‘cisterns’; underneath
my bedroom was a huge concrete cistern for storing
soft rainwater from the roof, very good for doing
The Canadian Pacific Railway’s
Streetsville Station. On this
day in 1914 the station’s
water tank was well toppedup with Credit River water as
is indicated by the ball at the
top of the gauge. (Notice also
the telegraph wires running
alongside the railway tracks).
“I worked for the CPR railway for 43 years, and I can tell you the
water was very vital to the steam engines. There was a water pump
down at the power plant for the railway steam engines. Old Mr.
John Temple ran the Streetsville power plant, and he had to keep an
eye on a big ball that functioned like a gauge on top of the CPR
water tank. He would have to walk up the hill from time to time to
check the position of the ball. When the ball was near the top of the
pole the tank was full. These water storage tanks were positioned at
intervals along the railway to refill the steam engines along their
route. When the trains would arrive in Streetsville, we’d pull the
lever and out would come the water...7,000 gallons at a time! As
the water level went down so did the big ball and John would start
up the pump down at the power plant and refill the water tank.
There was no such thing as automatic in those days; they had to do
it manual. They had to keep a close eye on that tank.”
—Bill Evans, Streetsville Resident
the washing, so long as the rain would fill it up.
There was an old hand pump there in the kitchen
basin to pump water up from the cistern below.”
The Streetsville Power Plant is seen on the west side of
the Credit River with dam stretching behind it across to
the river’s east bank. The mill pond is to the left of the
power plant on the upstream side of the dam.
Streetsville Senior Citizen, and President of the
Historical Society, Mr. Norman Potts, said,
“When my dad’s house was built in 1929, we had
the river water piped inside, but after a big rain
storm we had pure red water coming through the
pipes. So it wasn’t good for drinking, or even
washing at times. The new plumbing was just for
the water closet, not for drinking. We still had to
carry our drinking water in a pail from the well
outside. That was the only drinking water we had
–well water from the ground.
The people of Streetsville continued to depend
on wells for their drinking water until at least
the first filtration plant began treating the river
water in 1946. Shortly thereafter a sewage treatment plant was built to process the community’s
wastewater. The 1949 Directory of Sewage-Treatment
Plants in Canada describes the new plant:
“STREETSVILLE, ONT. (Population 900)
–Sedimentation tank followed by intermittent
sand filters. Plant built in 1947. Effluent discharged
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In 1962, Streetsville’s population surpassed 5,000
and the ‘Village” officially became a “Town.” That
same year the river was providing the Town members with 266,000 gallons of water per day, all of
which passed through the upgraded Streetsville
water filtration plant where treatment consisted
of “pre- and post-chlorination, activated carbon,
and lime.” The municipally-treated water was
stored in a 500,000 gallon standpipe before it
entered the Town’s distribution system comprised
of 13.7 miles of mains and 133 hydrants, reaching
1,258 domestic services, 124 commercial services,
and 9 industrial services.124
As the figures above illustrate, the 1950s had
brought a building boom to Streetsville, one
which has never really stopped. Electricity, fire
protection, water, and sewers attracted builders
at that time, and subdivisions began to sprout
on all available sites. Remembering again that
planners expand water systems as required in
order to keep slightly ahead of the increasing
demand for water, Streetsville’s water and wastewater systems were purchased in 1969 by the
Ontario Water Resources Commission as a part
of the emerging South Peel Water System (see
below). Despite significant local resistance to the
change at that time, Lake Ontario did become
the source of Streetsville’s water supply and the
destination for its treated wastewater. In 1977,
Streetsville’s power plant ceased to supply electricity to the community as Streetsville Hydro
turned over the operation of the system to the
newly created Mississauga Hydro Commission.
And so it was that the Streetsville’s reliance on
the Credit River as a source of power and water
came to an end.
(Today, both the power plant and water treatment
structures can be seen on the west bank of the
Credit River immediately north of Streetsville’s
Royal Canadian Legion. Remnant structures
from the sewage treatment plant are still found
on the west bank of the river, just south of the
Vic Johnston Community Centre).
b. Floods, Fires, and Waterworks in Brampton
on the Etobicoke
Unlike the Credit River, the Etobicoke Creek
was not well suited for the miller’s water wheel.
It lacked the volume, consistency of flow, and
major drops in elevation for any significant harnessing of power. Nevertheless, for Brampton,
to Credit River.” (p.111) Ten years later the same
directory reported an upgrade to the sewage
treatment system:
“(Population 3,800) –Activated sludge plant,
with a designed capacity of 800,000 gallons per
day, constructed and operated by the Ontario
Water Resources Commission. Effluent discharged
to Credit River.”123
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like so many other settlements, the local water
course was central to the community, literally,
since the Etobicoke flowed right through the
centre of town, until it was diverted in 1951.
The early resident of Brampton Village must
surely have had some contradictory feelings
when it came to water. On the one hand, like
most 19th century urban dwellers, they lived in
genuine peril and constant fear of fire due to a
lack of water with which to combat a blaze. On
the other hand, the Village was precariously founded
on the floodplains of the Etobicoke Creek, with
the result that spring water regularly flooded the
community, with losses of property and life.
It is thought that the Etobicoke Creek may have
been going through a dry spell in 1819 when
people like John Elliot from Brampton, England,
first settled on the creek’s floodplains. At that time,
remembering the importance of proximity to
water, the Etobicoke Creek provided fresh water
to drink and fish to eat for those settlers who lived
close to its banks. That being said, this chosen
location caused annual problems for Brampton,
which would last for more than a century.
Flooding is natural for rivers; causes include
spring thaws, heavy rains, and excessive runoff
due to deforestation and the “umbrella effect” of
urban sprawl with its impermeable, paved surfaces
and storm water systems. Surviving records confirm
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61
that the Etobicoke flooded as far back as 1795,
1854, and 1857. The annual spring influx of water
regularly destroyed bridges and wooden sidewalks
and damaged stores and homes. The idea of
building a flood diversion channel was first
proposed in 1857. A channel project was actually
begun in 1870, but was abandoned. To try to
alleviate some of the annoyance, Main and Queen
Streets were both raised and are today probably 8
to 10 feet higher that the original tracks through
the bush. The last major flood in Brampton was
on Tuesday March 16, 1948 when
by early afternoon “a growling,
surging giant” of ice and
water, ranging from 3 to 6 feet
in depth, roared through
town, leaving destruction in
SEE “EROSION/FLOOD
TOWN“ ACTIVITY
its wake.
The Etobicoke-Mimico Conservation Authority
had been set up by the provincial government in
1946. Planning and construction took place over
the following years and by November 10, 1952 the
flood diversion channel was opened. It was two
years later, on the night of October 15, 1954 that
Hurricane Hazel struck Southern Ontario.
Torrential rain dumped over 28 centimeters of
rain in 36 hours; 81 lives were lost and communities
close to Brampton were devastated. The new flood
diversion channel filled to within a foot of the top,
but did not overflow. Brampton escaped
Curious Bramptonians are high and dry as they take refuge during the 1948 spring flooding of the Etobicoke Creek.
unscathed. For the first time in 131 years,
Bramptonians did not have to fear disastrous
flooding.
(1) Fire and Water
In the early days of Brampton Village, homes
and businesses were usually built of wood and
heated with wood stoves, so that a fire out of
control meant almost certain destruction of property. The centre core of many communities
burned to the ground on at least one occasion.
Without a system of piped water and fire hydrants,
a community’s volunteer fire fighters and residents
would form a “bucket brigade” composed of
people in a human chain. Beginning at the water
source, “the buckets of water were
passed from one individual to
another along the line until the
person at the front of the line
threw the water onto the raging
fire.”125 One can imagine how
SEE “THE BUCKET
BRIGADE“
ACTIVITY
ineffective this system was.
In 1853, with a population of 550, Brampton was
incorporated as a Village and immediately invested
in a modern piece of fire fighting equipment: a
hand pumper that could do the work of 40 men
with buckets.126 When it came to fire fighting,
the village of Brampton was fortunate because it
had the Etobicoke River (now called a creek)
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Regular devastation of property by fire meant
that fire insurance was very expensive. With the
rise of urban water systems, the fire insurance
industry began offering reduced rates to those
communities with large quantities of piped water.
To this day, municipal water systems provide
water for fire protection. In 1876 Brampton, a
meeting of 100 property holders initiated The
County of Peel Farmers’ Mutual Fire Insurance
Company by special Statute of Upper Canada.
With the horse and buggy as the only means of
communication, the Directors were obliged to
inspect risks, adjust claims, and attend to collec-
Swamp Fire close to Inglewood, 1948. Water is transported in barrels on a wagon to where local residents
form a bucket brigade to combat a fire.
Students at the 2004 Peel Children’s Water Festival have
fun forming a bucket brigade leading from Heart Lake
to an imaginary blaze on the beach.
running through its core. As long as the river
wasn’t frozen in winter, dry in the summer, or
flooding in spring, the new hand pumper could
pump river water directly to a fire, or to large cisterns
placed throughout the Village for emergency
storage. The pumper was an improvement, but
could not provide the required water supply to
successfully fight fires either.
‘The Iron Road and the Concrete Creek.’ Brampton’s
diversion channel directs the Etobicoke Creek’s trickling
summer current under the CPR trestle and around the
downtown core.
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tions. Amongst the items causing concern were
lanterns, steam engines, and later on, electricity.
A copy of the losses in Peel for the years 1897 is
shown below.127
“Fires are great promoters of waterworks,” a civil
engineer once shrewdly observed. Most of Canada’s
earliest urban water systems were built privately
and came into being, not to supply citizens with
potable water, but for the purpose of protecting
property investments from fire. Brampton achieved
the status of a Town by exceeding 5,000 residents
in 1873. In 1878, a Provincial Act allowed for
three Water Commissioners to oversee affairs
relating to Brampton’s water supply. In 1880, as
the Town of Brampton grew and property values
rose, Town councillors were increasingly concerned
about the unavailability of water for firefighting.
About this time, Brampton studied Toronto’s
water system, which importantly included fire
hydrants. As a result, by September, 1882, Brampton
lived up to its title of County Town by being the
first community in Peel to construct its own water
hydrant system, at a cost of $58,000.128 With 30
hydrants spread about town, the new system soon
proved itself when a downtown bakery caught fire
one month later. With the new hydrants, the fire
was extinguished within an hour without damage
to other properties, an unprecedented triumph.
Brampton’s water system quickly became the envy
of many Canadian towns and cities.
Brampton had made a first attempt to pipe spring
water to Town from the Carter farm, but it proved
ineffective. It was Snell’s Lake (now Heart Lake),
as the closest large body of water, that became
Brampton’s exclusive source of municipal water
in 1882, and for the next thirty years. Situated at a
higher elevation and several kilometres north-east of
the Town, this spring-fed, kettle lake supplied the
gravity system, which created good water pressure
for firefighting. At a cost of $10,000, the distant
lake was connected to Brampton via a 12-inch,
cast iron feeder main, 2.5 miles long, which connected to 1.5 miles of 6 inch iron pipe, and finally
to two miles of 1.5 inch wooden pipes.129
With continued growth in Brampton towards
the end of the 19th century, water consumption
naturally increased and the lake’s water quantity
and quality declined. Records from the Sanitary
The County of Peel Farmers’ Market Mutual Fire Insurance Company
Schedule Showing [excerpt] Details of Losses During the Year Ending December 31, 1897
NAME
J.J. Douglas
John Cook
John Madill
Arch. McGregor
John Wolfe
J.H. Ballenger
John Cumberland
Chas. Sweeney
DATE
Jan 27
Feb 22
April 19
April 9
July 6
Sept 13
Sept 24
Oct 10
Post Office
Streetsville
Streetsville
Alton
Claude
Streetsville
Streetsville
Brampton
Caledon
CAUSE
Spark from stove
Spark on fire board
Defective stove pipe
Child with matches
Not known
Lightning
Spark from chimney
Struck by lightning
Payment Date
March 20
March 20
June 3
May 15
July 30
Nov 2
Oct 21
Dec 8
Accounts Paid
$ 5.00
1.50
200.00
5.75
600.00
575.00
10.00
7.00
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HUMAN CYCLE
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system was described as follows: “Nine miles of
Engineering Division of the Ontario Department of using its waters and plains as a dumping
sewers for domestic sewage only; sewage treated in
of Health in 1924 reported that: “The lake is pol- ground. Effluent from tanneries and piggeries
septic tank, thence to Etobicoke River; cost of sewers,
luted, coloured, and contains considerable plankton. was allowed to flow into the creek. The annual
It is filtered through sand filters. The whole supply spring flood was depended upon to “wash away” $78,000; cost of disposal plant, $45,000.”131
is chlorinated.” In 1912, a new source of municipal water had been added to the existing Snell
Lake supply when a well was drilled on the Marshall
Estate, three miles north of town. A pump house
was constructed above the well, which pumped
a half million gallons per day of good quality
groundwater out of the Brampton Esker Aquifer
into a new million gallon reservoir constructed at
the well site. This groundwater was mixed with
the treated lake water and pumped into the
Town’s distribution system.130 The 1924 report
states that 90% of the 1,313 homes inspected in
Brampton were connected to the Town water
system. The recommendation was made that all
private wells be closed where Town water was
available: “186 private wells were inspected, only
Members of the volunteer fire brigade and local residents level surging water hoses at the blaze that almost
twelve of which were free from pollution...A number
consumed Brampton’s Royal Hotel in 1945.
of people however, while having Town water in
the community’s refuse. Due to pollution, an
their houses, prefer water from their private wells
The 1924 Sanitary Report cited above had more
1853 by-law had forbidden swimming in the
to the municipal supply, entirely overlooking the
to say about Brampton’s sewage: “The Town has
creek. As early as 1864, with the establishment
possibility of contamination of their private
an extensive system of sanitary sewers. The sewage
of the Brampton Board of Health, the Town was
wells.” One source of wells’ contamination may
is treated in a modern disposal plant, [likely settling
pressured to install a sewage system, but such a
have been spring flooding, since this was later
and clarifying tanks] and discharged
system was not built until 1906. Furthermore, in
found to be the case following the flood of 1948.
into the Etobicoke River at the south
1916, the Commission of Conservation Canada end of the town... Unfortunately,
released its report “Water Works and Sewerage
We know that the Etobicoke Creek was long
all the sewage is not discharged
Systems of Canada” in which Brampton’s sewage into the sewers. There were four
since polluted due to the early residents’ practice
SEE “WATER QUALITY
TESTING“ ACTIVITY
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The Town’s original sewage septic system was
updated in 1932 to a plant that used activated
sludge to treat wastewater. Brampton’s population
at the time was 7450. The plant had a capacity of
one million gallons per day. The Directory of
Sewage-Treatment Plants goes on to report: “Sludge
treated by digestion. Sludge hauled to farms in liquid form from digester and clarifiers. Effluent discharged to Etobicoke River.”133
dicted that this water supply would serve the
Town of Brampton until 1968.134 The report
praised the Brampton Water Commission for
having the foresight to acquire water rights on
farm lands neighbouring the wells so that an
additional two wells might be installed. The five
wells would provide a total supply from the
Brampton Esker Aquifer of 3.6 mgd, which, it
was believed, would serve the Town adequately
until 1980. This 1955 report forecasts the future,
and describes the present, when it states that “It
may be that with passing years, development
from the south will have progressed to such an
extent that lake [Ontario] water supply will have
been extended as far as the Town.”135
With growing population and water consumption,
Brampton installed their first deep well in 1930,
in order to supplement the earlier supply. It was
around this time that Snell’s Lake was abandoned
as a source of water for the Town. In 1938, a second
deep well was added to meet the average daily
demand of 765,000 gallons. Both wells were in
close proximity to the 1912 pump house. In 1949,
a third deep well was installed on the Parr’s farm,
one-half mile north of Highway 7 and immediately east of the Second Line (Tomken Road).
According to a 1955 report, Brampton’s three
existing wells produced 2.6 million gallon of
water per day (mgd) for a population of almost
12,000. Based on expected growth, it was pre-
Town of Brampton Councillors at the site of the
community’s first municipal well, freshly drilled on
the Marshall Estate in 1912.
report recommended that water mains and sewers be immediately extended to the entire municipality, and that all discharge connect to the
sewers so that only municipal sewage enters the
Etobicoke Creek.
A 1945 aerial photo of Heart Lake’s predominantly
agricultural surroundings.
private sewer outfalls noted, and there was ample
evidence of the existence of others. The effect of
this pollution on the condition of the creek is well
illustrated by the dissolved oxygen. Above the
Town, the creek water has a 97% saturation of
dissolved oxygen. After passing through the Town,
but before the sewage effluent is added, the dissolved oxygen has dropped to 61% saturation, a
loss of about 36%. After the effluent is added, the
saturation is 34%. In other words, the wastes
emptied into the creek in its passage through the
Town use up more oxygen from the creek than the
sewage effluent.”132 Only 75% of homes were
connected to the town sewerage system. The
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CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
66
Curriculum Connections 4
“The rich historical record of each of these
three communities is examined through
the lens of water and demonstrates the vital
role that water has played and continues to
play in the life of Peel.”
Human activity within local watersheds
affects both natural and human water
cycles, with significant impacts on water
quality and quantity.
• Gr.3
• Gr.8
Social Studies: Heritage & Citizenship: Early
Settlements in Upper Canada
Geography: Patterns in Human Geography
History: Canada a Changing Society
Social Studies: Canada & World Connections:
Urban and Rural Communities
Sci/Tech: Earth & Space Systems: Water Systems
Sci/Tech: Energy & Control: Forces and
Movement
• Gr.4
4
The Region of Peel supplies safe, secure,
and reliable water and wastewater services
while promoting environmental protection and stewardship.
• Gr.1
Social Studies: Canada & World Connections:
The Local Community
Sci/Tech: Life Systems, Characteristics and
Needs of Living Things
Sci/Tech: Life Systems: Habitats and Communities
• Gr.5
Social Studies: Canada & World Connections:
Aspects of Citizenship and Government in
Canada
• Gr.6
Sci/Tech: Energy & Control: Electricity
• Gr.7
• Gr.2
• Gr.9
CWS: Geography: Geography of Canada
Technological Education: Integrated Technologies
• Gr.10
Science: Biology: The Sustainability of
Ecosystems
CWS: History: Candian History Since World
War I
• Gr.11
CWS: Geography: Physical Geography
Science: Waste Management
History: British North America
Sci/Tech: Energy & Control, Energy from
Wind and Moving Water
Geography: Natural Resources
Sci/Tech: Earth & Space Systems; Air and
Water in the Environment
Sci/Tech: Life Systems: Interactions within
Ecosystems
• Gr.12
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CWS: World Geography: Human Patterns and
Interactions
CWS: History: Canada: History, Identity and
Culture
HUMAN CYCLE
67
“With passing years,” and sooner than predicted,
Brampton’s well-based water system could no
longer supply the needs of the growing population.
Water shortages and restrictions became a regular
occurrence and the Town sought out more water.
In early 1966, just prior to the establishment of
the South Peel Water System, and as Peel Regional
Government was being planned, the Town of
Brampton was engaged in lengthy negotiations
with both Chinguacousy and Toronto Townships, as
well as the Ontario Water Resources Commission,
in order to work out auxiliary water supplies with
these municipal neighbours. The need was urgent,
since the looming peak summer water demand
promised to further drop the level of the Town
wells. With no agreement in sight and the wells
predicted to run dry by May, the Brampton Water
Commission proposed “laying a pipe from the
Etobicoke Creek to replenish the wells before
summer.” Due to the poor quality of the Etobicoke
Creek’s water, it was proposed to chlorinate the
creek water first. Fortunately this drastic measure
never proved necessary as a water deal was reached
with Toronto Township and a 24-inch pipe was
extended north so that by May 1966, Brampton
began receiving two million gallons of Lake Ontario
water daily. Soon thereafter, Brampton joined
the South Peel System and abandoned the wells
that had served the community since 1912. In
1974, the Town became the “City of Brampton”—
and a part of the new Region of Peel.
c. From Groundwater to Lake Water in Bolton
on the Humber
The Village of Bolton has its humble beginnings
back in 1819 when a millwright from England
named James Bolton Sr. arrived in the area to join a
half dozen settlers already snug in their log shelters.
Mr. Bolton settled five kilometers northeast of
present day Bolton, on lot 14, concession 9, and
carried out settling duties to acquire his land patent.
He was joined the next year by his nephew George
Bolton, who had been in New York since 1816.
Together they recognized the local Humber River
for its power potential, having a rapid fall from a
small stream in the northwest. Like the Credit, the
Humber River was well suited for milling, and in
1820 George Bolton built the community’s first
grist mill on the Humber River, near the bend in
Mill Street.136 The demand for a mill was great
and farmers would often wait in a line up for a
day or two in order to get their grain milled. The
settlement soon became known as Bolton Mills
in the Township of Albion.
European style industry began thereafter, so that
by 1840 there were 14 log buildings, two stores,
a blacksmith, shoe maker, and tailor. Like other
riverside communities, Bolton’s history is not
without its floods. Following a serious flood that
destroyed the Bolton Mill in 1845, George Bolton
sold the business to a nephew who rebuilt on
higher ground. By 1846 there were two saw mills
and four grist mills in Bolton, and by 1851 the
community’s population was 400.
Although the Government of Upper Canada
considered this territory their own following the
1818 “New Purchase,” Mississauga Ojibwa people
still inhabited this watershed and river, once known
to the earlier Seneca inhabitants as Tau-a-hon-ate.
European settlers in Bolton noted that from 1845
to 1865, Native people made camp on Cold Creek
every winter. They reportedly made baskets and
bows, which they sold around the area on handpulled sleighs.137 Whereas the Native peoples
always used the waterways and foot trails to move
through the valley, the newcomers depended on
wagons, carriages, and poor roads as their only
means of transportation at the time.
Bolton’s story is a familiar one; the settlement
continued to grow and prosper so that by 1857, the
population had reached 700. Local raw materials
and habitat continued to dwindle, however, so that
by 1870, any large trees had been felled and the saw
mills closed. By 1858 the Passenger pigeons had
disappeared, and the Atlantic salmon were gone
from the river’s cold water habitat. (See Appendix
B for information on the return of Atlantic salmon
to Peel.) The landscape changed, and the people’s
lifestyles with it. But the river continued to supply
the villagers with many fish and the best source
of recreation: “Above and below the dam were the
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power was delivered to the village on January 25,
1915.”141 At that point an electric motor was
installed to run the mill. (The McFall family continued to run the mill until 1950 when it changed
hands a few more times, and was sold to developers
and demolished in 1968. The Humberview Hills
residential subdivision now stands on that site.)142
swimming places in the evenings, but the daytime old
swimming hole was below the mill beside Godbolt’s
bush, as there was a deep hole there and it was well
out of sight from the road, and on Saturdays during
the summer was well patronized.138 In the winters,
“the [mill] pond above the dam was scraped free of
snow. ‘Shinny’ and ‘Crack the Whip’ were played
by young and old. In 1865 a rink was made above
the bridge and a pump set in the pond so the
rink could be flooded when the ice got worn.”139
This growing community was no longer content to
be the star of a township in decline. They severed
connections with Albion to become a separate
municipality incorporated as the Village of Bolton
in 1872, and took their seat at the Peel County
Government throughout the next century. By then,
the Village had a train station on the Toronto, Gray
& Bruce Railway, which conveniently transported
large shipments of local flour. No longer did
teamsters have to haul flour, 10 barrels at a time,
along the 26 miles of bone-rattling road to distant
Toronto. The Village also had two foundries, a
tannery, a brick school house and churches, a
brick yard, and numerous mechanic shops. Just
upstream on the Humber from Bolton, in the
hamlet of Glasgow, was Walshaw’s Woollen Mill,
with its water-powered knitting machines that
produced long woollen underwear, blankets and
yarn.140 These industries put Bolton on the map
in Peel County.
Humber River Flood, Bolton 1912. Like Brampton, Bolton
was regularly flooded. The community’s location in the
Humber River Valley meant that the spring freshet
brought ice and water into the Village.
The original grist mill owned by the Bolton
family became the property of Andrew McFall
in 1881. Times and conditions were changing
for milling companies; uncertain water levels in
the river and evolving technologies gradually
resulted in new power sources. Auxiliary steam
power came first to McFall’s Mill in 1890. In 1907,
Andrew’s son, Arthur McFall, installed a gas
powered generator to drive the mill’s machinery
when water levels were low. McFall simultaneously
started the Bolton Heat, Light, and Power
Company. “With the help of his auxiliary steam
plant, he supplied Bolton’s power needs for the
next eight years. The privately owned generating
and distribution system was purchased by the
village and the distribution system was rebuilt
under the supervision of Ontario Hydro. Hydro
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Despite these gradual advancements, Bolton was
without a municipal water or sewage system for
a long time. Without hydrants, the Village was
vulnerable to fire, which devastated the community in 1886, destroying half the businesses on
Queen Street.143 Without water, fire protection
consisted of (re)building with fire resistant brick.
In 1898, Bolton Council did attempt to build a
municipal water works system. This elaborate
scheme would have piped water in from neighbouring Macville to the Village’s south hill,
providing water for the trains at the CPR station
and then, by way of a gravity-fed system, into
the Village. Bolton residents voted down these
costly plans, and the bucket brigade continued
to be Bolton’s main defence against fire. In 1913,
the Village “Council [was still] grappling with
the question of a system of waterworks,” according to the Thirty-Second Annual Report of the
Provincial Board of Health.
In 1936, Bolton Council hired engineers to design a
municipal waterworks. The Village borrowed the
HUMAN CYCLE
69
$30,000 necessary to build the system and spread
the cost over the next 30 years.144 In 1939, Bolton
opened the waterworks, which was supplied by a deep
well. Gasoline-powered motors pumped water to one
standpipe (one of the two which is still in Bolton
today). The untreated groundwater was distributed
to 21 fire hydrants and 100 home services at an
annual flat rate of 12 dollars per average house.145
By 1961, Bolton’s population was 1,600, and the
Ontario Water Resources Commission was operating
two wells in the village with electric pumps, and
chlorinating the supply. The system provided 96,700
gallons per day (gpd) through the Village’s distribution system, which supplied 52 fire hydrants, 650
domestic services, 4 commercial services, and 2
industrial services. A year later, a 350,000 gallon
elevated tank was added to the system for increased
pressure, storage capacity, and emergency fire
protection. It was in 1955 that Bolton built its first
sewage treatment plant to service the population of
1,050 people. The system was a trickling filter plant
with a designed capacity of 183,333 gpd. The sludge
was treated in primary and secondary tanks. The
effluent was passed through sand beds and was
chlorinated before being discharged to the
Humber River.146
As has already been said, natural water systems
can only support a limited population while still
maintaining water quality and quantity. When this
maximum is surpassed, the community usually
requires a different water supply and/or technology.
This is especially true in populated communities
where there has always existed the challenge of
securing larger quantities of water, while simultaneously protecting the water source. Bolton is
one of three communities in the Town of Caledon
identified to accept GTA growth, as set out in the
Town’s “Pro-active Growth Management Strategy.”
With a population of 14,816 in 1999, five
wells supplied treated water (chlorine, and
sodium silicate for iron segregation) to Bolton’s
municipal groundwater system, owned and
operated by the Region of Peel. As the water
source, the Bolton Aquifer (also known as the
Oak Ridges Aquifer) is found approximately 60
to 130 meters underground in a bedrock valley
situated beneath the Humber River. Population
growth meant that Bolton’s demand for water
was surpassing the limits of the existing municipal system, as well as the groundwater source
itself. That source was being “mined,” meaning
that groundwater was being withdrawn from
the Bolton Aquifer faster than natural processes
(like rain and snowmelt) could recharge the
supply. One environmental consequence of
aquifer mining is that local stream flow and
surface water levels are reduced. According to
a 1996 Groundwater Quantification Study,
Bolton’s daily water supply requirement from
As water levels in the Humber River dwindled and new
technology appeared, the role of the dams in supplying
mills with power also diminished. Such was the case at
McFall’s Bolton Flour Mill.
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the wells was 6. 5 million litres per day
(mld), while the safe yield from the aquifer
was deemed to be only 2 mld. (The average
classroom filled up with water might hold
180,000 litres, and therefore Bolton’s daily
water supply requirement at the time was
approximately 36 classrooms full of water).
In order for Bolton to stop mining the aquifer,
the community would have had to reduce their
total water usage by 87%, a requirement that
was not a realistic, independent solution.
Furthermore, with the Town’s population
growth projections, Bolton is expected to
have a daily water supply requirement of
15.6 mld by the year 2021. Bolton’s situation
resembled that of Brampton, over 30 years
earlier.
viable, alternative solutions for the community’s
water supply, which were:
• the development of new groundwater supplies;
• the interconnection of available groundwater
supplies;
• [throughout Caledon]an independent supply
from the South Peel Water System;
• [from Lake Ontario] combined supply from
South Peel and new/existing groundwater
supplies.
All manner of comments were gathered from
the community and included a concern for
potential development or growth pressures due
to a lake-based water supply in Bolton. The
project team and working groups evaluated
In 1998, the Region of Peel initiated the “East
Caledon Potable Water Supply and Servicing
Study”, which looked at communities in the
Bolton’s former groundwater and current
eastern area of the Town of Caledon. Bolton
was one of the communities studied, in addition Lake Ontario water supplies.
to Caledon East, Palgrave, and Centreville, all
of which were then serviced by the Region of
Peel’s groundwater-based Caledon Water System.
The study included public meetings in 1998 and
1999 in Bolton, Palgrave, and Caledon East. In
the case of Bolton, the Region proposed four
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public comments, and analyzed the alternatives
considered against technical, environmental,
social, cultural, financial, and operational factors.
Their recommendation to Regional Council—
which was approved—was that Bolton’s daily water
demand of 6.5 million litres be supplied from
the lake-based South Peel Water System. In order
to meet Bolton’s water demands, a 750 millimetre
diameter transmission main was constructed
and as of February 2002, the community’s new
lake water supply is piped 16.5 kilometers from
the North Brampton Pumping Station along
Mayfield Road to Coleraine Drive and then
north to Bolton’s elevated tank where it is distributed to the community.
Stringent water treatment standards and rigorous,
daily water quality monitoring produces safe,
quality drinking water in both the Region’s
groundwater-based and lake-based water supplies.
HUMAN CYCLE
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Map of Aquifers in Caledon
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This being true, with the switch from one source
to the other, Bolton residents noticed a decrease
in the hardness of their water; the treated lake
water has 125 mg /litre of mineral content compared
to the treated groundwater at 205 mg /litre. Since
the lake water has less iron than the groundwater,
iron staining of household fixtures was also less
frequent. Residents noticed fewer scale deposits in
pipes, kettles, and water heaters due to the lower
levels of calcium and manganese in the lake water.
The change in Bolton’s source of water supply
from a groundwater-based to a lake-based system
was undertaken only after careful study and
consultation with the community. As the provider
of drinking water, the Region of Peel must balance
the need for safe drinking water with environmental protection. At the very end of the 20th
century, Bolton was using more water than the
aquifer could sustainably supply. The continuation
of that situation would have had an increasingly
detrimental impact on the watershed, including
all life forms. The Regional Official Plan states
in policy 2.2.5.1.1: “It is the policy of the
Regional Council to: Protect, maintain and
enhance the integrity of ecosystems through the
proper planning and management of groundwater resources and related natural systems in
Peel.” Since the changeover to the Lake Ontario
supply, the Bolton aquifer has had an opportunity to recharge.
D. Water & Development:
The South Peel System
Today, the South Peel System is a lake-based system
that draws water from Lake Ontario and serves the
vast majority of Peel’s citizens. Our lake water is
treated at either of two facilities; the Lakeview
Water Treatment Plant provides water to eastern
Peel, while the Lorne Park Water Treatment Plant
serves western Peel. Wastewater from the west side
of Peel is processed at the Clarkson Wastewater
Treatment Plant while the G. E. Booth (Lakeview)
Wastewater Treatment Facility serves the east. All
of these facilities are operated by the Ontario Clean
Water Agency (OCWA) on behalf of the Region of
Peel. What follows is a brief overview on the ori-
The aftermath of a rain storm is depicted in this aerial
photo, as the surge of stormwater run-off carries eroded
sediments downstream into Lake Ontario.
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gins of Peel’s lake-based municipal water and
wastewater systems, known collectively as the
South Peel System.
1. First in the Lake
Throughout time, the various communities
across Peel have obtained their water supply
from different sources: rivers, wells, precipitation,
and lakes. The very first community in Peel to
use Lake Ontario as a source of municipal water
was Port Credit. In 1923, the Village of Port
Credit put in a small pumping station, settling
basin, and tower, which served the little village
with Lake Ontario water. Remnants of that system
are found today at Saddington Park at the foot
The architectural remnants of Port Credit’s 1923 pumping
station (foreground) and 1947 water treatment plant
are still visible at Saddington Park, by the mouth of the
Credit River, on the shores of Lake Ontario.
HUMAN CYCLE
73
of Mississauga Road. During the earliest stages
of the Port Credit water system in the 1920s, four
public water taps were available at different locations
along Lake Shore Road as a recourse for those
who had trouble with their private wells. At the
same time, Toronto Township (now Mississauga)
was starting to grow, and required a water supply.
Throughout Peel’s history, area municipalities
have often come to one another’s aid when water
was in short supply. And so it was then, when
Port Credit helped their municipal neighbour
by supplying them with water. In 1931, the very
first water main in Toronto Township was laid
from Port Credit, up Stavebank Road and across
Mineola Road. The construction of that six inch
main was done by hand as a make-work project
for the unemployed during the Depression years.
Two other water mains were built from Port Credit
to other Toronto Township communities: one
up Hurontario Street to Cooksville, which was
growing but only had private wells and no fire
protection, another along Lakeshore Road to
supply wartime housing in Clarkson.
The intake pipe for the Port Credit system was
poorly situated; it wasn’t far enough out into
the lake and it was close to the mouth of the
Credit River. Runoff from the upper watershed
would reach the harbour laden with sediments
and contaminants (due to deforestation, and the
“umbrella effect”). That same runoff would flow
downstream to Lake Ontario and right into Port
Credit’s intake pipe. To address this problem,
Port Credit upgraded their system and built a
water treatment plant in 1947, which was
designed to remove the sediment and chlorinate
the water. The growing demand for water in
Toronto Township soon exceeded Port Credit’s
ability to supply, and the Township decided to
get into the water business itself.
At that time, Toronto Township had a very major
and essential industry within its boundaries:
A.V. Roe, builder of the infamous Avro Arrow.
At the height of its productivity in the 1950s,
A.V. Roe was employing 50,000 people at their
aircraft factories in Malton. Such an industry
required a lot of water, and the company had
their own supply in the form of three wells and
a water storage tank located on a parcel of land
purchased from the Ackroyd family farm, near
Stanley Mills, in what was then Chinguacousy
Township. These wells were first drilled in 1938
on the south-west corner of Torbram Road and
Bovaird Drive (at today’s Mountain Ash Road)
and pumped groundwater from the aquifer that
was a glacial gravel deposit. The Stanley Mills
water system provided the aircraft industry in
Malton with a million gallons of water daily for
the next 13 years, via a 10-inch main built along
the west side of Airport Road.
The origins of this water supply date back to
1937, when the Canadian Government was
already preparing for the threat of war. Aviation,
of course, was a major part of those preparations,
and so land was acquired for the Malton airport
from 13 farms south of Derry Road, and west of
Sixth Line (now “Airport Road”). Runway construction began immediately, preceded by the
laying of water mains and sewers. The first plane
landed at the new airport in August, 1938. It was
that year that the National Steel Car Company of
Montreal built a large aircraft manufacturing
plant at the south-west corner of Derry and
Airport Roads. National Steel Car was taken
A 1951 publicity photo caricatures the efforts of Malton
residents to conserve precious water as the Stanley Mills
groundwater supplies neared exhaustion.
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HUMAN CYCLE
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over in 1942 by the federal government and
operated as Victory Aircraft Limited, producing
430 Lancaster bombers, amongst other planes.
Howard Ackroyd remembers his boyhood and
the wells on the family farm that supplied
Malton’s aircraft industry during World War II:
“During the years 1940 through about 1949,
there was a security guard on duty around the
clock at the wells, because it was war time and
the water was an essential service. The whole
works was fenced in and they had to watch it
closely.”
The water that supplied the industry was also
connected to Malton Village’s wartime housing
on the east side of Airport Road. Following the
war, Victory Aircraft was purchased by the
Hawker Siddely Group, who re-named it A.V.
Roe. Although the Second World War was over,
the Korean War was just beginning. The Stanley
Mills groundwater supply for both industry and
residents in Malton was beginning to run low.
Residents were asked to conserve water, and the
search was on for a new supply.
An article in the October 25th, 1951 edition of
the Brampton Conservator newspaper reported:
“Avro Canada Limited and Malton housing centre
officials discussed Monday the water shortage
which caused the aircraft factory to close down
During the 1930’s in Malton, the A.V. Roe Company built
11,000 “Avro Anson” reconnaissance planes, in preparation
for World War II. The aircraft industry’s enormous demand
for water was satisfied at the time by wells at the Stanley
Mills pumping station, in Peel County’s Chinguacousy
Township.
over the weekend and left the housewives without
a trickle of water coming out of their taps. [The]
housing centre manager...believed the shortage
was due to an air pocket in Avro’s wells, the centre’s
only source of water. The company, now rationing
water both for its own use and for that of Malton
village, said relief was expected later this week when
the new Toronto Township pipeline is completed.”
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Water and sewer mains are installed during the rapid,
pre-World War II construction of the Malton Airport in
1938.
Mr. A.P. Kennedy was a water engineer with
Toronto Township at that time:
“The Lakeview Water Treatment Plant was precipitated by the fact that A.V. Rowe needed water.
Their ground sources north of Malton were of
poor quality and inadequate quantity. So they
approached Toronto Township in 1950, and
[amidst a jurisdictional dispute between Malton,
the Township, and the Ontario Municipal Board]
the Lakeview Water Treatment Plant was commissioned in 1951 on the condition that Malton
would get water. It was completed in 1953 where
HUMAN CYCLE
75
it stands today. But because of the water shortage in
Malton, we immediately put a 30” intake pipe into
Lake Ontario in 1951 with a temporary pumping
station on Lake Shore Road, and we put a pipeline
up to the new one million gallon reservoir built in
Malton. Initially, Malton was getting water that
was untreated, other than chlorination. During the
following year or two we built the three million
gallon filtration plant at Lakeview, which was
opened on April 10, 1953. We figured that one million
gallons had to go to Malton, and we needed half a
million in Toronto Township, so we doubled that
and made it three million. And that would last
forever! (laughing)”
With the opening of the Lakeview Water Treatment
Plant in 1953, Toronto Township no longer
required water from the “Town” of Port Credit.
The fluoridation of the water supply began at
Lakeview in March, 1955, and has continued ever
since. By 1954, Lakeview had already expanded
its capacity to 6 mgd. This was expanded to 12
mgd in 1960, 24 mgd in 1966, and 48 mgd in
1970.147 In a 1959 report to Toronto Township’s
P.U.C., the designers of the Lakeview Plant, Gore
& Storrie Limited, described how “within the
next 10 years, a very considerable increase in the
water supply of the Township must be provided, if
the present rate of development is to be accommodated.”148 The report goes on to provide some
rates of water consumption over the previous years.
Toronto Township Water Consumption Rates 1951 - 1958
1951
Population Served
Water Used Average - mgd*
Per Capita daily use - gallons
13,600
0.56
41
1953
1955
1956
1957
1958
25,000
1.86
74
35,000
2.21
63
40,000
2.63
66
42,000
3.42
81
45,500
3.64
80
* mgd = millions of gallons per day
From the table below,149 one can see that during
this time period, not only was the population and
total water consumption on the rise, but so was
the per capita rate of water use. With the passing
of a decade, the average person was using almost
twice as much water, or so it seemed. This per
capita increase may be due to the growth of
industrial consumption in Peel. In 1966, it was
this same Toronto Township system that daily
supplied the parched Town of Brampton with
two million gallons of lake water. The connection
was made via a 24-inch pipe that was extended
north to the Beckett-Sproule reservoir, the
northern terminal of the Toronto Township
system at that time.
a. South Peel System –Then and Now
The description above summarizes the lake-based
system as it was in mid-1960s when the Ontario
Water Resources Commission (OWRC) first
proposed the South Peel System. The OWRC had
been formed in 1956 to better protect natural
sources of water supply by assisting municipalities in operating state-of-the-art water and
wastewater systems. By the 1960s, in the face of
rapid development in formerly rural Peel, the
OWRC deviated from their community-based
approach and undertook Canada’s first comprehensive, multi-community plan for both water
and wastewater systems, which is the South Peel
System. Former Commissioner of Peel Public
Works, Bill Anderson, remembers water planning in the early days of Peel’s developmental
boom: “There was a lot of growth. Water supply
and demand estimates then were
based on growth in the past, and
then ‘growth in the present’
came along, and everything
mushroomed. What you
estimated for 10 years suddenly
SEE “WHAT’S IN THE
happened in two.”
NEWS“ ACTIVITY
The plan for the South Peel System covered
768 square kilometers, stretching 32 kilometers
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HUMAN CYCLE
76
uphill from the shores of Lake Ontario to
Snelgrove (in North Brampton) with a difference in elevation of 500 feet (150 meters). The
system’s ingenious idea of designated pressure
zones was inherited from Toronto Township
(later Mississauga) when the OWRC amalgamated municipal water systems. Pressure zones
are located at every 100 feet (30 meters) of elevation. The water mains and storage reservoirs
inter-connect pressure zones from one level to
another. In-ground reservoirs function like an
elevated tank providing a pressurized water
supply for a lower zone.
In proposing the South Peel System, the OWRC
cited “the need for a suitable supply of satisfactory water for human use, particularly for those
areas depending on ground or river sources that
are either becoming difficult to economically
process, have insufficient supply, or both. OWRC
also reported the need to prevent pollution from
entering streams and lakes from improperly operating plants.”150 At first, not all municipalities
agreed with the OWRC’s interpretation of things,
nor did they all embrace the idea of a comprehensive South Peel System. Streetsville, for example,
recommended that their pollution control plant
be retained, arguing they had been operating a
plant under joint control with the OWRC since
1957. Streetsville insisted that the OWRC was
capable of continuing to operate a sewage treatment
plant locally, especially since sewage treatment
plants operating further up the Credit River at
Acton and Georgetown would remain operating.151
In fact, the “Streetsville Water Pollution Control
Plant” was not decommissioned until 1972 when
the West Trunk sewer (which was started before the
South Peel System to facilitate development in Erin
Mills and Meadowvale) was finally completed, leading
to the Clarkson Wastewater Treatment Plant.
As part of the South Peel System, the OWRC agreed
to provide trunk sewers and treatment facilities for
handling wastewater from the five municipalities.
The system of sewers was designed to eliminate
wastewater effluent into local rivers and creeks by
using gravity to pipe wastewater south. The OWRC
took over and completed construction of the West
Trunk Sewer through the Credit River valley, piping
wastewater to Clarkson Wastewater Treatment
Plant, and the East Trunk Sewer through the valley
of the Etobicoke Creek to the G. E. Booth
(Lakeview) Wastewater Treatment Facility. The G. E.
Booth (Lakeview) Wastewater Treatment Facility
was the OWRC’s first sewage treatment project.
The Gary E. Booth (Lakeview) Wastewater
Treatment Facility was completed and officially
commissioned in 1961 with a design capacity of
22.5 million litres per day (5 million gpd).
Following treatment, the effluent is released back
into the natural hydrologic cycle, via Lake Ontario.
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Excepting Regional roads, the vast majority of storm
water sewers are under city jurisdiction
and are never connected to the
South Peel System. Stormwater sewers return rain water to local, natural water courses.
SEE “OVERFED LAKES“
ACTIVITY
In 1975, phosphorous removal was
implemented at the Gary E. Booth (Lakeview)
Wastewater Treatment Facility as it became mandatory to reduce the amount of nutrients being
released into the lake via wastewater effluent. At this
time, a process known as “thermal conditioning”
was also introduced in order to reduce the volume
of sludge that was disposed of on land. The incineration of wastewater sludge was introduced in 1984,
thereby eliminating land application of the sludge.
This process produced large amounts of steam,
A Region of Peel elevated water tank today. This tank
was relocated to Streetsville from Dixie in 1971.
HUMAN CYCLE
77
which was used in the thermal conditioning
process. This system became the first closed-loop
energy system in a North America wastewater
treatment facility.
As planned, the ambitious South Peel System project
would cost $88 million. In 1969, this new system
brought together five distinct municipal water systems: the Town of Brampton, the Town-ship of
Chinguacousy, the Town of Mississauga (formerly
Toronto Township), the Town of Port Credit, and
the Town of Streetsville. Together these five systems
served 225,000 people at the time, with 218,000
cubic meters of water daily.152
The South Peel System Agreement was ratified by all
parties on December 17th, 1968. Water was thereafter sold to the municipalities at a per unit cost by
the OWRC, which was soon replaced by the Ontario
Ministry of the Environment (MOE).
Comprehensive water servicing was followed by
regional government in 1974, with the creation of
The Region of Peel’s G. E. Booth (Lakeview) Wastewater
Treatment Facility on the shores of Lake Ontario.
the Regional Municipality of Peel and its three area
municipalities: the Cities of Brampton and
Mississauga, and the Town of Caledon.
The MOE began operating the South Peel Water
System’s second water treatment plant, Lorne Park,
in November 1978. The design of the “invisible”
underground Lorne Park Water Treatment Plant
conserved lakeside parkland and won numerous
international awards. The plant’s original capacity
was 227 million litres per day (50 million gpd) with
an additional capacity of 114 million litres per day
(25 million gpd) added in August, 2002.
A significant expansion was completed at the
Lakeview Water Treatment Plant in 1991, which
included a new intake pipe with a diameter of 2.55
metres (100 inches) stretching out 1.95 kilometres
(1.2 miles) from the shore of Lake Ontario. Filter
backwash water treatment was also included, which
eliminated the discharge into the lake of the solids
removed by the filters. This expansion brought the
plant’s total design capacity to 560 million litres per
day (123 million gallons per day).
The ownership of the South Peel Water System was
transferred from the Province’s Ministry of the
Environment to the Region of Peel in 1997, under
Ontario Provincial Bill 107. Regional Council
Resolution 96-1396 dated November 28, 1996,
authorized the creation of a South Peel Water and
Sewer Project Team to develop and implement a
competitive process to award a service contract to
operate and maintain the South Peel System. On
July 1, 1998 the Ontario Clean Water Agency was
awarded a 10-year service agreement to operate and
maintain the South Peel System.
The Region of Peel signed an agreement on
February 14, 2002 to provide water to York Region
beginning December 31, 2004. Under the agreement, “land-locked” York Region will receive water
from Peel to meet its needs at a substantially lower
cost than through other previously considered
options. Peel will benefit financially from the agreement, while meeting Peel’s water needs and adding
security to the South Peel System.
Following the York-Peel Water Agreement, plans
were initiated to expand the South Peel System to
accommodate York’s needs. As a result, the Lakeview
Water Treatment Plant will undergo an expansion to
be completed in 2006 that will result in a total plant
design capacity of 820 million litres per day (180
million gpd). The expansion will include the latest
treatment technology such as membrane filtration
and ozonation to comply with the new drinking
water regulations under the Safe
Drinking Water Act, enacted in 2002.
For more information on Peel’s
water and wastewater treatment
systems visit the Public Works
SEE “WATER
website at peelregion.ca.
DISTRIBUTION IN PEEL
USING G.I.S“ ACTIVITY
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CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
78
Curriculum Connections 5
“Water is a precious and finite resource,
which is costly to treat and distribute.”
Sci/Tech: Earth & Space Systems: Soils in the
Environment
Sci/Tech: Earth & Space Systems: The Earth’s Crust
• Gr.8
1
4
Water is necessary to sustain all life
The Region of Peel supplies safe, secure,
and reliable water and wastewater services
while promoting environmental protection
and stewardship.
• Gr.4
Sci/Tech: Earth & Space Systems: Rocks,
Minerals, and Erosion
Social Studies: Canada and World Connections:
Canada’s Provinces, Territories & Regions
• Gr.5
• Kindergarten
Geog.: Patterns in Human Geography
History: Canada: A Changing Society
Sci/Tech: Earth & Space Systems: Water Systems
Sci/Tech: Structures & Mechanisms:
Mechanical Efficiency
Social Studies: Canada & World Connections:
Aspects of Citizenship and Government in
Canada
• Gr.9
Sci/Tech: Life Systems: Human Organ Systems
• Gr.10
• Gr.1
Sc/Tech: Matter & Materials: Properties &
Changes in Matter
CWS: History: Canadian History since World
War I
Social Studies: Canada & World Connections:
The Local Community
• Gr.6
Science: Chemistry
Sci/Tech: Life Systems: Diversity of Living Things
• Gr.11
• Gr.7
Science: Human Impact on the Environment
Geog.: Natural Resources
• Gr.12
Sci/Tech: Matter & Materials: Pure Substances
& Mixtures
CWS: The Environment and Resource
Management
Sci/Tech: Life Systems: Interactions within
Ecosystems
CWS: World Geography: Human Patterns and
Interactions
Personal and Social Development: Awareness of
Surroundings
Sci/Tech: Exploration & Experimentation
Sci/Tech: Life Systems: Characteristics & Needs
of Living Things
• Gr.2
Sci/Tech: Earth & Space Systems: Air & Water
in the Environment
• Gr.3
Social Studies: Canada & World Connections:
Urban & Rural Communities
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CWS: Geography: Geography of Canada
Chemistry: Chemistry in the Environment
HUMAN CYCLE
79
2. Water Efficiency - Water Smart Peel
In 2003, the Regional Municipality of Peel endorsed
a new strategy aimed at raising public awareness
and action towards using water more efficiently.
The Water Smart Peel program has as its goal, the
reduction of individual water consumption levels
by 10% in Peel, before 2015. Water is a precious
and finite resource, which is costly to treat and
distribute. Presently, the average Peel resident’s
per capita water consumption, 290 litres per day,
is greater than the per capita consumption of any
European country. See Peel residential water
consumption rates by area using G.I.S. data at
www.peelwaterstory.ca.
demand-side solutions are also necessary so that
the costs and impacts of water purveyance are as
efficient as possible. Water efficiency will contribute
to the long term health of Peel’s inhabitants, both
human and ‘more-than-human.’
Reducing unnecessary water use in Peel is desirable,
and by no means a new idea. Peel County’s first
municipal system of piped water was in Brampton,
where in 1910 the Rules and Regulations from
the Brampton Board of Water Commissioners
required that “lawn sprinkling by all consumers
shall be done between the hours of 6 and 9 a.m.,
and 6 and 9 p.m.” in order to avoid the wasteful
evaporation of water in the midday sun. The
process of extracting, treating and distributing
large volumes of water (and wastewater) is not
without environmental impacts since water
treatment utilizes a great deal of energy. Expanding
Peel’s water infrastructure in order to meet the
ever-increasing demands on water and wastewater
systems is known as supply-side solutions. However,
Bar Chart of international daily consumption rates, 2001.
The Water Smart Peel program promotes methods
by which people can reduce the amount of water
they use both inside and outside their homes.
In the summertime water use goes up, often by
50 per cent. This increase in water expenditure
is generally caused by people (over-)watering
their lawns and gardens. Water Smart Peel staff
travel throughout Peel, from May through
August, educating residents on methods to
reduce water use in their yards. The three key
messages that Peel strongly endorses are:
*do not water the lawn between 10am and 4pm
*do not water on Wednesdays (“Water Wise
Wednesdays” create a “virtual rain day,” which
will allow Peel’s reservoirs to recharge weekly)
*water your lawn with only 2.5 cm (one inch)
of water per week (by using a complimentary
rain gauge).
(per capita in litres)
400
382L
343L
290L
300
250L
200L
200
135L
100
71L
46L
8L
United
States
Canada
Region
of Peel
Italy
Sweden
Israel
Pakistan
(1991)
Yemen
(1990)
Somalia
(1987)
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HUMAN CYCLE
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These techniques, when
employed collectively by all
residents in Peel, can dramatically reduce the amount
of per capita water use during
the summer months.
SEE “SCHOOL WATER
AUDIT“ ACTIVITY
In the winter and throughout the year, Peel sells
Indoor and Outdoor Water Efficiency Kits, which
contain fixtures that can significantly decrease
the amount of water used by each household.
Additionally, Peel has a toilet replacement
program which provides a monetary incentive
for residents to replace their older, inefficient
flush toilets with low flow models. By using
water efficient fixtures, Peel residents can save
money on their water bill. These are some of
the initiatives that make up the Water Smart Peel
program. Indeed, as a part of the broader Water
Smart Peel program, the Peel Water Story aims
to increase awareness within Peel’s educational
community about people’s vital connections to
human and natural water systems so that we can
all continue to responsibly enjoy a clean,
convenient, and available water supply.
3. “Populution” and Water Source Protection
Records from Peel’s pioneer era report how the
earliest settlers found natural sources of water
to be free from contamination, and therefore
largely potable. For previous millennia, Aboriginal
societies had lived carefully within—and as part
of—the ecosystems that sustain all life. Their
interactions with the natural environment were
guided by, (what we would now call) stringent
resource management and sanitary engineering
practices. The brief excerpt from the Iroquoian
Thanksgiving Address, above, exemplifies
Aboriginal peoples’ appreciation for—and sense
of duty towards—the interconnectedness of all
things. With this sophisticated understanding,
pre-contact Aboriginal economies flourished by
achieving a balance between supply and
demand, or put another way, the needs of
humans and ‘more-than-humans.’ That natural
balance—the same one that once provided safe
drinking water in every stream—was severely
upset during the 19th and 20th centuries when
Euro-Canadian societies drastically altered the
local landscape without any apparent understanding or regard for resource management.
The wealth of the natural resources seemed
inexhaustible to the awestruck newcomers.
Many fortunes were made, while the fragility of
this bounty evaded them. As is recounted previously in this story, the main form of pollution
control was dilution, with the result that it did
not take long before surface waters were contaminated. The ancient forests were quickly
logged and the rivers and their hatcheries
choked with sawdust and sediment. The woeful
toll of disease by water contamination is also
documented previously, as both country and
town life were threatened by every manner of
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mismanaged human waste: industrial, agricultural, and residential.
Unfortunately, the contamination of water
sources continues today. A simple description
of Peel’s major watersheds illustrates this fact.
In Peel’s headwater areas where human population
is low and large natural areas still persist, water
quality in the natural environment remains quite
good. The middle reaches of the watersheds run
through agricultural areas, residential developments, and larger communities like Bolton and
Caledon East. Here the water quality is degraded
by stormwater, which carries a host of contaminants and litter, including bacteria, nutrients,
pesticides, herbicides, larvicides, road salt, oil,
grease, and metals. The lower parts of Peel’s
watersheds run through high-density, residential,
commercial, and industrial areas with extensive
road networks. The water quality here is poorer
still. All of this surface water eventually reaches
Lake Ontario, the source of drinking water for
most of Peel’s 1.1 million inhabitants.
Western science has gradually come to understand ecosystem principles that resemble those
of the ancient, Traditional Environmental
Knowledge (TEK) of Aboriginal peoples. As a
society, we now recognize the inter-relationship
of health and environmental issues. The recent
outbreak of waterborne disease in Walkerton,
Ontario has further heightened Canadian
HUMAN CYCLE
81
awareness of the fact that threats to water quality and quantity can have a profound impact on
health. Recommendations from the Walkerton
Inquiry are becoming new provincial laws,
which are summarized below. At all
levels of society, households,
communities, corporations,
and governments are increasingly bringing actions and
practices into line with
SEE “CASE STUDY these environmental
WALKERTON’S
understandings.
TRAGEDY“ ACTIVITY
a. Multi-Barrier Approach to Safe
Drinking Water
“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
–Benjamin Franklin
All things are connected in a watershed and, put
simply, what happens upstream will eventually
have an effect downstream (and ultimately, viceversa). The Peel Water Story reminds us that
what we do on the land is mirrored in the water.
Being situated between Lake Ontario and the
Oak Ridges Moraine, residents of Peel have
access to substantial water supplies and everadvancing water treatment technologies ensure
that those supplies are clean and safe at the tap.
In 2002, as a response to the Walkerton tragedy,
the government of Ontario passed the Safe
Water Drinking Act (SWDA), which gathers
together in one place all the legislation and regulations relating to the treatment and distribution of drinking water. The Act thereby provides
for “the protection of human health and the
prevention of drinking water health hazards
through the control and regulation of drinking
water systems and drinking water testing.” It
recognizes that “the people of Ontario are entitled to expect their drinking water to be safe.”
The SWDA represents a highly regulatory
regime of provincial control, which the Region
of Peel meets and exceeds as a leader in the
management of municipal drinking water systems. Also in 2002, the Sustainable Water and
Sewage Systems Act was passed, making it
mandatory for municipalities to budget over the
long term for the maintenance of water and
wastewater infrastructure.
These two new provincial Acts regulate the
treatment and distribution of water. However,
the Report from the Walkerton Inquiry also
identified “water source protection” as Ontario’s
missing link in a multi-barrier approach to
ensuring that water is safe from source to tap.
The Walkerton Inquiry’s recommendations
around this concern have given rise to the new
Drinking Water Source Protection Act, in its
draft legislation stage at the time of this writing
in 2004. This Act would protect water before it
enters our drinking water systems and require
source protection plans to be developed and
implemented locally for every watershed in the
province.
The multi-barrier approach to safe drinking
water recognizes that “the components of the
water supply system—from source protection
to the treatment and distribution of drinking
water to consumers—must be understood and
managed as a whole.” Benjamin Franklin would
agree that it is sensible and cost effective to protect
water sources in the first place, so as to mitigate
the expense of water treatment
later. More than ever before, we
need to flexibly apply our modern, scientific, and holistic understandings in order to reduce the
SEE “WHICH THINGS
contamination of
DON’T BELONG“
our watersheds.
ACTIVITY
(1)Peel’s Wellhead Protection Area Program
One way in which the Region of Peel protects
groundwater supplies from contamination is
through the Wellhead Protection Area Program.
Through zoning, monitoring, and awareness,
this program ensures the protection of the water
supply for those citizens connected to Peel’s
municipal groundwater systems; it furthermore
aims to reduce the initial contamination of the
environment.
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A Wellhead Protection Area (WPA) is the surface
and subsurface area surrounding a water well or
well field of a public groundwater system. The
program is concerned with contaminants from
the surrounding area that may move towards
the well or well field. Examples of contaminants
include: septic systems, leaky storage tanks or
pipelines, chemical leaks or spills, landfills,
graveyards, salt or other chemicals that run-off
from roads and highways, fertilizers and pesticides,
contaminants in rain and snow.
The Region of Peel’s Wellhead Protection Area
Program includes the monitoring of 17 municipal wells in seven well fields serving the Town of
Caledon. The protected areas include: Alton,
Caledon Village, Caledon East, Centreville,
Granite Stones, Inglewood, Mono Mills, Palgrave,
and Skywood Park. The Wellhead Protection
Area Program started in the fall of 1992 and is
being conducted in four phases.
Completed in 1993, the first phase of the program
involved inventories of Peel’s municipal wells
and contaminant sources. The Region of Peel
reviewed municipal and domestic well information
to better understand the conditions at each well
field. The Region also conducted a preliminary
inventory of contaminant sources in the area
surrounding each well field, identifying any
activities or sources of contamination that may
threaten the groundwater quality in the area.
Phase Two saw the use of local geological data
and computer models to identify the areas
where water travels over a specified time period.
These areas are referred to as “zones of transport.” For example, a particle of water with a
five-year zone of transport would take five years
to reach the well. Two types of zones of transport were outlined in the program: The fiveyear zone of transport represents the estimated
minimum response time needed to replace a
contaminated municipal well with a new well.
The 10-year zone of transport represents the
time needed to monitor and model a well to
avoid abandoning or replacing it. In the third
phase of this program, completed in 1996, the
Region of Peel’s main objectives were to outline
the wellhead protection areas for each well field
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and to implement a wellhead protection plan.
The Town of Caledon enacted a by-law that
limits the kinds of land use permitted within
the WPAs.
Phase Four of the program, involves the Region
of Peel finalizing policies for land use within
the WPAs. These policies may regulate storage
practices, limit the application of hazardous
materials and outline procedures for groundwater
quality monitoring. For more information about
the Wellhead Protection Area Program, visit the
Public Works website at peelregion.ca.
CONCLUSION
83
IV. Conclusion
That water is vital is elementary. That everything
is connected is inspirational. To invest in our
children is wise. And to ensure their sustenance
is compassionate, and sensible.
The Peel Water Story fills a local relevance gap
within existing water-focused educational
resources. A goal of this story is to educate Peel’s
educators on the subject of local water systems
and water issues, past and present. By having
read this story, count yourself amongst the more
knowledgeable people on this subject. With the
other components of the Peel Water Story
resource at your disposal (and being the “Giant”
that you are), you will hopefully feel equipped
to pass your understandings along to your
Lilliputian pupils: “that generation of people that
is still capable of growing into the habit of looking after where they live.”
Through its watery lens, this story exposes Peel
for the vibrant community that it is, which in
Canadian terms has a long and colourful history,
and yes, a spectacular natural inheritance. Peel’s
natural and cultural diversity (and because this
is our home, after all) make it a place worth
exploring, knowing, and understanding. The
Peel Water Story has tried to illustrate the many
ways in which humans and ‘more-than-humans’
live within Peel’s watersheds, which continue to
sustain life today, as they always have. This knowledge may inspire some people, perhaps yourself
and/or a student(s) to make some changes/take
some action that will enhance the quality of life
for all, in some small and important way.
Having now understood how water gets around
locally, perhaps you want to visit a water treatment
facility, a conservation area, or the Peel Children’s
Water Festival. Maybe you would like an expert
to visit your classroom to make a presentation on
natural watersheds and/or municipal water systems.
Or perhaps you’re ready to undertake a communitybased action project that will bolster your classroom
program while benefiting your (sub)watershed
(or perhaps you already have). Come showcase
your project at the annual Peel EcoFair! The Peel
Water Story resource can help with these objectives.
If the Peel Water Story has raised your awareness
as an educator about local water issues, then it has
already succeeded. If it makes your water usage
behaviours “less unsustainable,” even better.
Tell me, I forget.
Show me, I remember.
Involve me, I understand.
– Chinese proverb
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APPENDIX A: GLOSSARY OF TERMS
84
Appendix A: Glossary of Terms
Aboriginal - the original (indigenous) peoples of
North America
activated sludge - micro-organisms used in the
wastewater treatment process to breakdown organic
components in sewage
First Nations - in this context the term is used to
refer to the ‘first peoples’ or Aboriginal Peoples who
were living in North America prior to European
colonists.
of the Region, and includes part of the area covered
by Lake Peel, at the time of the last glaciers’ retreat.
pollution control plant - older term for a wastewater treatment facility
Anishinabeg - from the Ojibwa language meaning
“the people” and referring to themselves
Haudenosaunee - named “Iroquoian” by the French,
“Haudenosaunee” means “People of the Longhouse”
and is the people’s own name for those who belong
to the Iroquoian Confederacy.
aquifers - a natural underground water reservoir
hummocky - covered in hills
artesian well - a water well that penetrates a
pressurized aquifer
moraine - natural storage area for water, usually
headwaters for river systems
renewable water supply - the rain and snow that
falls in the region every year, replenishing underground aquifers, rivers and lakes as water moves to
the seas.
baseflow - surface water originating from an aquifer
more-than-human- other than human life forms,
i.e. - animals and plants
riparian - of, or relating to the banks of a natural
water course
multi-barrier approach - a multi-stage plan for
keeping water clean, which importantly includes not
only water and wastewater treatment but also source
protection
settler - refers generally to settlers, mostly from
Europe and America, who immigrated to Canada.
Aboriginal settlements already existed for millennia,
however the term “settler” as used here does not
refer to these indigenous peoples.
BCE - Before Common Era
BP – before the present time
bioregion - landscape units, the extents of which are
defined by the biological processes that occur within
these areas. Lands and waters within bioregions
share climatic and many ecological similarities. A
bioregional unit helps to focus attention on the
interdependency and internal links that exist within
the natural environment.
denuded - exposed by erosion
ecosystem - a community of different species interacting with one another and with the local non-living
environment
Native - a contemporary term used by Aboriginal
people to identify themselves
offal - the entrails of a butchered animals, often
rotting
Ongwehonwe - from the Seneca language, meaning
“the real or original people” in reference to themselves and other Iroquoian Peoples
Peel Plain- a large plain that nearly spans the width
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purveyance -“water purveyance” describes the
treatment and distribution of water, usually by a
municipality
sewage - treated water that has been used for a purpose (such as bathing, cooking, toilet flushing) and is
collected in a sewer. Also known as wastewater.
sewer - a pipe that carries wastewater (sewage) or
storm water.
sludge - wastewater sewage matter in the process of
being treated
APPENDIX A: GLOSSARY OF TERMS
85
stakeholder - a party with an interest of “stake” in a
particular initiative or project
stormwater – run-off water (and other matter) that
collects in roadside catchment basins and is piped to
a local, natural water body, without treatment
tectonic plates - colossal pieces of the earth’s crust
that move slowly over long periods of time
trilobite - ancient sea creature, traces of which are
often found in fossils
umbrella effect - the effect of increasingly large areas
of paved and roofed landscapes where rainwater is
unable to permeate the soil and is redirected into
storm sewers that lead to local water courses.
wastewater - treated water that has been used for a
purpose (such as bathing, cooking, toilet flushing,
industrial processes) and is collected in a sewer. Also
known as sewage.
watershed - the entire area of land whose water
(rain and snow), sediments, and dissolved materials
(nutrients and contaminants) drain into a water
body, like a marsh, lake, river, stream, creek, or
aquifer. Its boundary can be identified on the ground
by connecting all the highest points of the land
around the receiving body of water
water taking - the large-scale, regulated extracting of
water from a natural source for some purpose like,
for example, bottling and selling water.
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APPENDIX B:
86
Appendix B:
Mississauga News, October 13, 1999
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Acton Free Press, September 16, 1998
A P P E N D I X C : P O P U L AT I O N S TAT I S T I C S
87
Appendix C: Population Statistics
Population Stats for Peel and Toronto
Year
1821
1841
1851
1861
1871
1881
1891
1901
1911
1918
1921
1931
1941
1946
1951
1956
1961
1966
1971
1976
1981
1991
1996
2001
2004
Peel
1,425
12,993
24,816
27,240
26,011
26,175
24,871
21,475
22,102
20,459
23,896
28,156
31,539
32,967
55,673
83,108
111,575
172,321
259,402
375,910
490,731
732,796
852,526
988,948
1,080,000
Population for Counties and census divisions, rural and urban, 1901, 1941
Toronto
Peel
York
65,085
75,903
113,128
207,450
238,080
409,925
611,443
818,348
909,928
1,117,470
1,620,861
2,089,729
1901
Rural Urban
17,503 3,972
45,803 226,860
1911
Rural Urban
17,440 4,662
49,732 394,502
1921
Rural
Urban
16,952 6,944
104,971 542,694
1931
Rural
Urban
19,772 8,384
180,263 676,692
1941
Rural
Urban
22,073 9,466
218,029 733,520
p. 581, Eighth Census of Canada, 1941, Volume 1, General Review and Summary Tables, Min Trade & Commerce, 1950.
Population for census divisions, rural and urban, 1966, 1971
1966
Rural Urban
Peel
22,787 149,534
Toronto -188,691
1971
1981
Rural Urban
20,755 238,650
490,731
-2,086,020 2,137,395
1991
2001
732,796
2,137,395
988,948
2,489,494
p. 11-10, Table 11, 1971 Census of Canada
Land Area, 1941, and density of population per square mile for Counties…, 1851–1941
Peel
York
Land Area (sq. miles)
469
882
1851
52.9
91.5
1861
58.1
118.5
1871 1881 1891
55.5 55.8 53.0
131.5 173.6 277.9
1901
45.8
309.1
1911
47.1
503.7
1921
51.0
734.3
1931
60.0
971.6
1941
67.2
1,078.9
p. 581, Eighth Census of Canada, 1941, Volume 1, General Review & Summary Tables, Min. Trade & Commerce, 1950.
2,137,395
2,275771
2,385,421
2,489,494
2,672,480
* compiled from various sources.
Peel’s Land Area and density of population, 1951–2001
Peel
Land Area
469 miles2
(1225.74 km2)
1951
118.7
1961
237.9
1971
553.1
1981
1046.3
(400.3)
1991
1562.4
(597.8)
2001
2018.6
(806.8)
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APPENDIX D: REFERENCES
88
Appendix D: References
Aboud, Steven and Koch, Henry. A Life Zone
Approach to School Yard Naturalization: The
Carolinian Life Zone, 1996.
Allengame-Kuster, Diane. Answering the Call: A
History of Firefighting in the Town of Caledon (The
Town of Caledon in association with eastend books,
2005).
Clarkson, Betty. Credit Valley Gateway: the Story of
Port Credit (Port Credit Library Board, 1967).
Dewdney, A.K. The Incredible Ecotourist (Toronto
Star, April 15, 1995).
Cobb, Edith. Ecology of Imagination in Childhood
(Dallas, TX: Spring Publications, Inc., 1993).
Dieterman, Frank A. Mississauga: The First Ten
Thousand Years (Toronto: eastend Books, 2002).
Commission of Conservation Canada. Water Works
and Sewerage Systems of Canada. (Ottawa: Mortimer
Company, 1916)
‘Directory of Sewage-Treatment Plants in Canada,’
Water and Sewage, August, 1947.
Armstrong, Christopher and Nelles, H.V. Monopoly’s
Moment: The Organization and Regulation of
Canadian Utilities, 1830-1930 (Philadelphia: Temple
University Press, 1986).
Cooper, Russ and Wilton, Gary, Brampton
Firefighters: 140 Years of dedicated service, 1853-1993
(Guelph: Ampersand Printing, 1993).
Ball, Norman R. Building Canada: a History of Public
Works (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1988).
Corporation of the County of Peel, A History of Peel
County to Mark Its Centenary as a Separate County,
1967.
Bolton, James H. Bolton: Some History and Events
(Re-printed from The Bolton Enterprise, 1931).
Broadbent, Heather R. “The Harris Family Burial”,
Families, Volume 37, No. 1 (1998). Journal of the
Ontario Genealogical Society.
Bull, William Perkins. From Medicine Man to Medical
Man: a record of a century and a half of progress in
health and sanitation as exemplified by developments
in Peel (Toronto : The Perkins Bull Foundation,
George J. McLeod Limited, 1934).
Canadian Engineer, The. 1939. (Toronto: Monetary
Times Print Company).
Clarkson, Betty. At the Mouth of the Credit (Erin: The
Boston Mills Press, 1977).
Corrigan, Chris. How to Find a Bagel in Alaska
(unpublished paper). Possession D. MacSeáin, 2005.
Credit Valley Conservation Report, 1956, Volume 1.
Credit Valley Conservation Authority, 1956.
Daigle, J.M., Havinga, D. Restoring Nature’s Place: a
Guide to Naturalizing Ontario Parks and Greenspace.
(Schomberg: Ecological Outlook Consulting, 1996).
deVilliers, Marq. Water (Toronto: Stoddart
Publishing Company Limited, 2000).
DeVissor, John. Credit River Valley (Boston Mills
Press Book, 1992).
T H E P E E L W AT E R S T O R Y | A W AT E R C U R R I C U L U M R E S O U R C E F O R P E E L S C H O O L S
‘Directory of Sewage-Treatment Plants in Canada,’
Water and Sewage, December 1949.
Dobson, Clive and Gilpin Beck, Gregor. Watersheds:
A Practical Handbook for Healthy Water (Willowdale:
Firefly Books Limited, 1999).
Ellison, Bert. The Rise and Fall of McFall Mill, Bolton.
Unpublished article. 1988. Region of Peel Archives.
Gerber, Richard and Howard, Ken. “Hydrogeology of
the Oak Ridges Moraine aquifer system: implications
for protection and management from the Duffins
Creek watershed” Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences.
Vol. 39. pp. 1333-1348. 2002.
Gore & Storrie Limited. 1959 Report to Toronto
Township’s Public Utilities Commission, September 14,
1959. Region of Peel Archives.
Hayes, Esther. The Story of Albion (The Bolton
Enterprise, 1961).
Hicks, Kathleen A. Lakeview (Mississauga Public
Library, 2004).
APPENDIX D: REFERENCES
89
Hoffman, Frances. Across the Water: Ontario
Immigrants’ Experiences, 1820-1850 (Milton: Global
Heritage Press, 1999).
Humber Watershed Task Force, Legacy: A Strategy for
a Healthy Humber, 1997.
Illustrated Historical Atlas of the County of Peel,
1877. (Campbellford: Wilson’s Publishing Company,
Ltd. 2000).
James F. MacLaren Associates Consulting Engineers,
Report on the Town of Brampton’s Water Supply.
(February, 1955). Region of Peel Archives.
James, William. A Historical Perspective on the
Development of Urban Water Systems (University of
Guelph:
http://www.eos.uoguelph.ca/webfiles/wjames/homep
age/Teaching/437/wj437hi.htm).
James, William. A Sufficient Supply of Clean and
Wholesome Water (Hamilton: 1978).
Koci, R. and Munchee, D. Ontario’s Quest for Clean
Water (Ministry of Environment, 1983).
MacFarlane Lizars, Kathleen. The Valley of the
Humber, 1615-1913 (Toronto: William Brigg, 1919).
Manning, Mary. A History of Streetsville (Streetsville
Historical Society, Publication No. 1, 1976).
Manning, Mary. ‘History of the Mills’ Water Mills in
Streetsville (Streetsville Historical Society, April
1974).
Mascola, Gary. Restoration ecology in education:
developing potential for ecological sustainability and
participatory consciousness in childhood.
(Unpublished paper, 2003). Possession of D.
MacSeáin, 2005.
Ministry of Trade and Commerce, Government of
Canada, Eighth Census of Canada, 1941, Volume 1,
General Review and Summary Tables, 1950.
‘Municipal Water Supply Systems in Canada,’
Canadian Municipal Utilities, Vol. 99, No. 2,
February, 1961.
Oak Ridges Moraine: Compiled by the Storm
Coalition, 1997. Brochure. Copy in possession of D.
MacSeáin, 2005.
“Ohenton Kariwahtekwen (Thanksgiving Address) Greetings to the Natural World.”
http://pages.slic.com/mohawkna/thankgv.htm
Ontario. Provincial Board of Health. First Annual
Report of the Provincial Board of Health of Ontario,
1882. (Toronto: C. Blackett Robinson, 1883).
Ontario. Provincial Board of Health. Twentieth
Annual Report of the Provincial Board of Health of
Ontario, 1901.
Orr, David. Earth in Mind: On Education,
Environment and the Human Prospect (Washington,
D.C.: Island Press, 1994).
Peel Mutual Fire Insurance Company, One Hundred
Years of History 1876-1976. Region of Peel Archives.
Petition respecting the navigation of the River Credit.
1830. Transcript of an Upper Canada Land Petition
as found in the Perkins Bull Collection, Region of
Peel Archives.
Quayle Innis, Mary. Mrs. Simcoe’s Diary (Toronto:
MacMillan, 1965).
Rees, Ronald. “Under the Weather: Climate and
Disease, 1700-1900” History Today, January 1996
(London: History Today Limited).
Regional Municipality of Peel. East Caledon Water
Supply Study. December, 1999.
Regional Municipality of Peel. County to Keystone:
Reflections of Peel 1974-1999, 2000.
Regional Municipality of Peel. Peel Regional Official
Plan. May 2001.
Regional Municipality of Peel. Planning Department.
Regional Planning Atlas. 2000.
Regional Municipality of Peel. Settlement History of
Peel. January, 1977.
Report to the Ontario Department of Health from
the Sanitary Engineering Division, Re: Brampton.
October 28, 1924. Region of Peel Archives.
Ross, Nicola. Caledon (Toronto: Stoddart Publishing
Company Limited, 1999).
Roulston, Pauline J. Place Names of Peel: Past and
Present (Cheltenham: The Boston Mills Press, 1978).
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APPENDIX D: REFERENCES
90
Skeoch, Alan. Mississauga: Where the River Speaks
(Mississauga Library System, 2001).
Trigger, Bruce. The Children of the Aataentsi, Volume
1. (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1976).
Smith, Donald B. “The Dispossession of the
Mississauga Indians: a Missing Chapter in the Early
History of Upper Canada” Ontario History, Volume
LXXIII, No. 2 (June 1981).
Wilkinson, Matthew. William Lyon Mackenzie: the
Flight Through Toronto Township (The Heritage
News: The Newsletter of the Mississauga Heritage
Foundation, Vol. 15, Issues 3 & 4, Summer 2002).
Sprague, John B. ‘Myth of Abundance,’ Alternatives:
Canadian Environmental Ideas and Action, Vol. 29,
Number 2, (University of Waterloo, Spring 2003).
Water & Pollution Control Directory. (Don Mills:
Southam Business Publications Ltd.).
Storm Coalition, Oak Ridges Moraine, 1997.
Waterworks Manual and Directory, Canadian
Municipal Utilities, 1962.
Streetsville Historical Society, Streetsville Public
Utilities Commission. 1985.
Tolton, M.G. , Memorandum to Streetsville Council
and Streetsville Public Utilities, February 19, 1966.
Region of Peel Archives.
Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, Creek
Time Newsletter, Spring 2004.
Weir, Erica and Haider, Shariq. “Cholera Outbreaks
Continue” Canadian Medical Association Journal,
Vol 70. (Hamilton: McMaster University. March 30,
2004).
Woodland Cultural Centre. Translations from the
Seneca language were made by Mr. Alfred Key,
through the Woodland Cultural Centre, in
Brantford, Ontario.
Toronto and Region Conservation Authority,
Greening Our Watersheds, (Etobicoke and Mimico
Creek Watersheds Task Force: 2002).
Toronto and Region Conservation Authority,
“Human Heritage Emerges at Heart Lake
Conservation Area.” Creek Time Newsletter, Spring
2004.
Toronto and Region Conservation Authority. Humber
Watershed Task Force, Legacy: A Strategy for a Healthy
Humber, 1997.
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APPENDIX E: NOTES
Appendix E: Notes
91
1 Peel is endowed, like much of Canada, with a sig-
3 Regional Municipality of Peel. Peel Regional Official
nificant renewable water supply. However, there does
exist a ‘myth of abundance’ concerning Canada’s
water supply –a myth that stems from the “confusion
between renewable water supply and water sitting in
our big lakes. While lakes are great for boating and
fishing, we cannot consume their water unless we
plan to dry them up. Our effective renewable supply
is the rain and snow that falls every year, which
renews aquifers, runs in rivers and passes through
the lakes as it moves to the seas.” (John B. Sprague.
‘Myth of Abundance’, Alternatives: Canadian
Environmental Ideas and Action, Vol. 29, Number 2,
(University of Waterloo, Spring 2003) p. 28). In
order to retain water local water supplies, we
humans must not use water at a rate faster than precipitation can renew it.
Plan. May 2001.
While some research points to changes in the
amount of water over long periods of time (due to
ice meteors that contribute to the Earth’s water
resources), for our purposes here we can see water,
and especially fresh water quantities, as finite. “The
trouble with water…is that they’re not making any
more of it. They’re not making any less, mind you,
but no more either—there is the same amount of
water on the planet now as there was in prehistoric
times…People, however, they’re making more
of…and all those people are utterly dependent on
water for their lives…” (deVilliers, Marq. Water
(Toronto: Stoddart Publishing Company Limited.
2000). p. 15.
Star, April 15, 1995)
4 Regional Municipality of Peel. Peel Regional Official
Plan. May 2001.
14 Storm Coalition, Oak Ridges Moraine, 1997. p15.
Plan. May 2001.
15 Etobicoke and Mimico Creek Watersheds Task
5 Policy 2.2.6.1.3. Regional Municipality of Peel. Peel
Force, Greening Our Watersheds (Toronto and
Region Conservation Authority, 2002) p. 15.
Regional Official Plan. May 2001.
6 Cobb, Edith. Ecology of Imagination in Childhood
16 Regional Municipality of Peel. Peel Regional
Official Plan. May 2001.
(Dallas, TX: Spring Publications, Inc., 1993).
7 Orr, David. Earth in Mind: On Education,
Environment and the Human Prospect (Washington,
D.C.: Island Press, 1994). p. 95
8 Dewdney, A.K. The Incredible Ecotourist (Toronto
17 Ross, Nicola. Caledon (Toronto: Stoddart
Publishing Company Limited, 1999) p. 76.
18 Regional Municipality of Peel. Peel Regional
Official Plan. May 2001.
19 Regional Municipality of Peel. Peel Regional
9 Regional Municipality of Peel. Peel Regional Official
Official Plan. May 2001.
Plan. May 2001.
20 Aboud, Steven and Koch, Henry. A Life Zone
10 Orr, David. Earth in Mind: On Education,
Approach to School Yard Naturalization: The
Carolinian Life Zone, 1996. p. 6.
Environment and the Human Prospect (Washington,
D.C.: Island Press, 1994). p. 95.
21 Aboud, Steven and Koch, Henry. A Life Zone
11 Regional Municipality of Peel. Peel Regional
Approach to School Yard Naturalization: The
Carolinian Life Zone, 1996. p. 7.
Official Plan. May 2001.
22 “The Butterfly Effect” describes the phenomenon
12 Ross, Nicola. Caledon (Toronto: Stoddart
Publishing Company Limited, 1999). p. 56.
2 Regional Municipality of Peel. Peel Regional Official
13 Storm Coalition, Oak Ridges Moraine, 1997. p15.
whereby a small change at one place in a complex
system can have large effects elsewhere, e.g., a butterfly flapping its wings in Rio de Janeiro may eventually change the weather in Moose Jaw.
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APPENDIX E: NOTES
92
23 This definition of a watershed borrows from
33 Bolton, James H. Bolton: Some History and Events
42 Toronto and Region Conservation Authority,
other definitions, including those in the Toronto and
Region Conservation Authority’s “Greening our
Watersheds” publication. p. 5.
(Re-printed from The Bolton Enterprise, 1931). p.
316.
“Human Heritage Emerges at Heart Lake
Conservation Area.” Creek Time Newsletter, Spring
2004. p.7.
24 Gerber, Richard and Howard, Ken. “Hydrogeology
of the Oak Ridges Moraine aquifer system: implications for protection and management from the
Duffins Creek watershed” Canadian Journal of Earth
Sciences. Vol. 39. pp. 1333-1348. 2002.
25 Humber Watershed Task Force, Legacy: A Strategy
34 Toronto and Region Conservation Authority,
Greening Our Watersheds, (Etobicoke and Mimico
Creek Watersheds Task Force: 2002). p. 15.
35 Toronto and Region Conservation Authority,
Greening Our Watersheds, (Etobicoke and Mimico
Creek Watersheds Task Force: 2002). p. 15.
for a Healthy Humber, 1997. p. 19.
36 Toronto and Region Conservation Authority,
26 Credit Valley Conservation Report, 1956, Volume 1.
Greening Our Watersheds, (Etobicoke and Mimico
Creek Watersheds Task Force: 2002). p. 15.
Credit Valley Conservation Authority, 1956.
27 Credit Valley Conservation Authority, 2000.
28 Credit Valley Conservation Authority, 1992.
29 Corporation of the County of Peel, A History of
Peel County to Mark Its Centenary as a Separate
County, 1967. p. 15.
30 Manning, Mary. A History of Streetsville
(Streetsville Historical Society, Publication No. 1,
1976) p. 5.
31 Credit Valley Conservation Authority, 2000. p. 4.
32 This translation from the Seneca language was
made by Mr. Alfred Key, through the Woodland
Cultural Centre, in Brantford, Ontario.
37 Dobson, Clive and Gilpin Beck, Gregor.
43 An excerpt from the Iroquois “Ohenton
Kariwahtekwen (Thanksgiving Address) - Greetings
to the Natural World.”
http://pages.slic.com/mohawkna/thankgv.htm
44 Dieterman, Frank A. Mississauga: The First Ten
Thousand Years (Toronto: Eastend Books, 2002). p. 4.
45 Trigger, Bruce. The Children of the Aataentsi,
Volume 1. (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University
Press, 1976). p. 62.
Watersheds: A Practical Handbook for Healthy Water
(Willowdale: Firefly Books Limited, 1999). p. 58.
46 Skeoch, Alan. Mississauga: Where the River Speaks
38 Dobson, Clive and Gilpin Beck, Gregor.
Watersheds: A Practical Handbook for Healthy Water
(Willowdale: Firefly Books Limited, 1999). p. 36.
47 MacFarlane Lizars, Kathleen. The Valley of the
39 Daigle, J.M., Havinga, D. Restoring Nature’s Place:
a Guide to Naturalizing Ontario Parks and
Greenspace. (Schomberg: Ecological Outlook
Consulting, 1996). p. 103.
(Mississauga Library System, 2001) p. 39.
Humber, 1615-1913 (Toronto: William Brigg, 1919).
p. 3.
48 MacFarlane Lizars, Kathleen. The Valley of the
Humber, 1615-1913 (Toronto: William Brigg, 1919). p.
16.
49 Hayes, Esther. The Story of Albion (The Bolton
40 DeVissor, John. Credit River Valley (Toronto:
Stoddart Publishing Co. Ltd, 1992) p. 117.
Enterprise, 1961) p. 4.
41 Toronto and Region Conservation Authority,
Greening Our Watersheds, (Etobicoke and Mimico
Creek Watersheds Task Force: 2002). p. 25.
MacMillan, 1965).
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50 Quayle Innis, Mary. Mrs. Simcoe’s Diary (Toronto:
APPENDIX E: NOTES
93
51 Roulston, Pauline J. Place Names of Peel: Past and
59 Regional Municipality of Peel. Settlement History
65 Clarkson, Betty. At the Mouth of the Credit (Erin:
Present (Cheltenham: The Boston Mills Press, 1978)
p. 26.
of Peel. January, 1977. p. 19.
The Boston Mills Press, 1977) p. 29.
60 Regional Municipality of Peel. Settlement History
66 Skeoch, Alan. Mississauga: Where the River Speaks
52 Wilkinson, Matthew. William Lyon Mackenzie: the
of Peel. January, 1977. p. 21.
(Mississauga Library System, 2001) p. 25.
Flight Through Toronto Township (The Heritage
News: The Newsletter of the Mississauga Heritage
Foundation, Vol. 15, Issues 3 & 4, Summer 2002). p. 5.
61 As related by Mr. Arthur P. Kennedy in an oral
67 See “Highway H2O” website at
interview.
http://www.hwyh20.com/
53 Corporation of the County of Peel, A History of
62 Macadamization was a process of road making
68 Clarkson, Betty. At the Mouth of the Credit (Erin:
with successive layers of compacted broken stone
mixed with sand and thick oil, resembling asphalt as
we know it today.
The Boston Mills Press, 1977) p. 28.
Peel County to Mark Its Centenary as a Separate
County, 1967. p. 15.
54 Corporation of the County of Peel, A History of
Peel County to Mark Its Centenary as a Separate
County, 1967. p. 15.
55 Smith, Donald B. “The Dispossession of the
Mississauga Indians: a Missing Chapter in the Early
History of Upper Canada” Ontario History, Volume
LXXIII, No. 2 (June 1981). p. 72.
56 Hoffman, Frances. Across the Water: Ontario
Immigrants’ Experiences, 1820-1850 (Milton: Global
Heritage Press, 1999) p. 82.
57 Wilkinson, Matthew. William Lyon Mackenzie: the
Flight Through Toronto Township (The Heritage
News: The Newsletter of the Mississauga Heritage
Foundation, Vol. 15, Issues 3 & 4, Summer 2002) p. 5.
58 Clarkson, Betty. At the Mouth of the Credit (Erin:
The Boston Mills Press, 1977) p. 18.
63 As described by Mr. A.P. Kennedy in an oral inter-
69 Clarkson, Betty. Credit Valley Gateway: the Story
of Port Credit (Port Credit Library Board, 1967).
p.124.
view.
64 “While [a ‘civilizing of Indians’] experiment was
going on, another entirely different approach was being
taken by the lieutenant governor of Upper Canada, Sir
Francis Bond Head. After visiting every Indian community where civilizing efforts were being conducted,
he concluded that Indians could not be civilized and
were doomed as a race to die out over time. He proposed
to relocate Indians to Manitoulin Island, where they
could be protected in a traditional lifestyle until their
inevitable disappearance as separate peoples. To this end
he persuaded some bands to surrender their Aboriginal
title to large areas of reserved lands in southern Ontario
in exchange for lands on Manitoulin Island. Church groups
working to convert and civilize Indians at that time were
angered by his approach, since it ran counter to the liberal and philanthropic ideas then coming into vogue in
Great Britain and the colonies.” See the Ministry of
Indian and Northern Affairs Canada’s “Indian Act.”
70 Hoffman, Frances. Across the Water: Ontario
Immigrants’ Experiences, 1820-1850 (Milton: Global
Heritage Press, 1999) p. 82.
71 Petition respecting the navigation of the River
Credit. 1830. Transcript of an Upper Canada Land
Petition as found in the Perkins Bull Collection,
Region of Peel Archives.
72 Bull, William Perkins. From Medicine Man to
Medical Man: a record of a century and a half of
progress in health and sanitation as exemplified by
developments in Peel (Toronto: The Perkins Bull
Foundation, George J. McLeod Limited, 1934)
p. 209.
73 Ross, Nicola. Caledon (Toronto: Stoddart
Publishing Company Limited, 1999) p. 71.
T H E P E E L W AT E R S T O R Y | A W AT E R C U R R I C U L U M R E S O U R C E F O R P E E L S C H O O L S
APPENDIX E: NOTES
94
74 Corrigan, Chris. How to Find a Bagel in Alaska
84 Ministry of Trade and Commerce, Eighth Census
(unpublished essay). Possession of D. MacSeáin,
2005.
of Canada, 1941, Volume 1, General Review and
Summary Tables, 1950. p. 581.
75 Toronto and Region Conservation Authority.
85 Hicks, Kathleen A. Lakeview (Mississauga Public
Humber Watershed Task Force, Legacy: A Strategy for
a Healthy Humber, 1997. p. 21.
Library) p. 119.
76 Hayes, Esther. The Story of Albion (The Bolton
86 Ball, Norman R. Building Canada: a History of
Enterprise, 1961) p. 139.
Public Works (Toronto: University of Toronto Press,
1988) p. 3.
77 Manning, Mary. A History of Streetsville
87 James, William A Sufficient Supply of Clean and
(Streetsville Historical Society, Publication No. 1,
1976) p. 3.
Wholesome Water (Hamilton: 1978) p. 15.
78 Clarkson, Betty. Credit Valley Gateway: the Story of
88 James, William A Historical Perspective on the
79 Manning, Mary. A History of Streetsville
Development of Urban Water Systems (University of
Guelph:
http://www.eos.uoguelph.ca/webfiles/wjames/homep
age/Teaching/437/wj437hi.htm) p. 2.
(Streetsville Historical Society, Publication No. 1,
1976) p. 6.
89 Toronto and Region Conservation Authority,
80 Clarkson, Betty. At the Mouth of the Credit (Erin:
Heart Lake Conservation Area Advisory Committee. P.
214.
Port Credit (Port Credit Library Board, 1967). p. 69.
Public Works (Toronto: University of Toronto Press,
1988) p. 195.
94 Koci, R. and Munchee, D. Ontario’s Quest for
Clean Water (Ministry of Environment, 1983). p. 2.
95 Commission of Conservation Canada. Water
Works and Sewerage Systems of Canada. (Ottawa:
Mortimer Company, 1916) p. 95.
96 James, William. A Historical Perspective on the
Development of Urban Water Systems (University of
Guelph:
http://www.eos.uoguelph.ca/webfiles/wjames/homep
age/Teaching/437/wj437hi.htm) p. 10.
97 Provincial Board of Health. First Annual Report of
the Provincial Board of Health of Ontario, 1882.
(Toronto: C. Blackett Robinson, 1883) p. xvii.
98 Koci, R. and Munchee, D. Ontario’s Quest for
Clean Water (Ministry of Environment, 1983). p. 3.
81 Bolton, James H. Bolton: Some History and Events
Clean Water (Ministry of Environment, 1983). p. 3.
99 Ball, Norman R. Building Canada: a History of
Public Works (Toronto: University of Toronto Press,
1988) p. 210.
(Re-printed from The Bolton Enterprise, 1931). p.
316.
91 Ball, Norman R. Building Canada: a History of
100 Provincial Board of Health. Twentieth Annual
82 Humber Watershed Task Force, Legacy: A Strategy
Public Works (Toronto: University of Toronto Press,
1988) p. 221.
Report of the Provincial Board of Health of Ontario,
1901. (Toronto: L.K. Cameron, 1901) p.45.
92 James, William. A Sufficient Supply of Clean and
101 Provincial Board of Health. First Annual Report of
The Boston Mills Press, 1977) p. 21.
for a Healthy Humber, 1997. p. 21.
83 Ball, Norman R. Building Canada: a History of
Public Works (Toronto: University of Toronto Press,
1988) p. 224.
90 Koci, R. and Munchee, D. Ontario’s Quest for
Wholesome Water (Hamilton: 1978) p. 22.
93 Ball, Norman R. Building Canada: a History of
T H E P E E L W AT E R S T O R Y | A W AT E R C U R R I C U L U M R E S O U R C E F O R P E E L S C H O O L S
the Provincial Board of Health of Ontario, 1882.
(Toronto: C. Blackett Robinson, 1883) p. xxxiv.
APPENDIX E: NOTES
95
102 Armstrong, Christopher and Nelles, H.V.
110 Rees, Ronald. “Under the Weather: Climate and
119 Illustrated Historical Atlas of the County of Peel,
Monopoly’s Moment: The Organization and
Regulation of Canadian Utilities, 1830-1930
(Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1986). p. 32.
Disease, 1700-1900” History Today, January 1996
(London: History Today Limited). P. 36.
1877. (Campbellford: Wilson’s Publishing Company,
Ltd. 2000).
111 James, William. A Sufficient Supply of Clean and
120 Nicola Ross, Caledon (Toronto: Stoddart
103 Ball, Norman R. Building Canada: a History of
Wholesome Water (Hamilton: 1978) p. 17.
Publishing Company Limited, 1999) p. 73.
Public Works (Toronto: University of Toronto Press,
1988) p. 216.
112 Bull, William Perkins. From Medicine Man to
121 Manning, Mary. ‘History of the Mills’ Water
104 Ball, Norman R. Building Canada: a History of
Public Works (Toronto: University of Toronto Press,
1988) p. 225.
Medical Man: a record of a century and a half of
progress in health and sanitation as exemplified by
developments in Peel (Toronto : The Perkins Bull
Foundation, George J. McLeod Limited, 1934) p. 197.
Mills in Streetsville (Streetsville Historical Society,
April 1974) p. 3. Available from Mississauga Library
System.
105 Commission of Conservation Canada. Water
113 Broadbent, Heather R. “The Harris Family
Works and Sewerage Systems of Canada. (Ottawa:
Mortimer Company, 1916) p.5.
Burial”, Families, Volume 37, No. 1 (1998) p. 4.
106 Bull, William Perkins. From Medicine Man to
Medical Man: a record of a century and a half of
progress in health and sanitation as exemplified by
developments in Peel (Toronto : The Perkins Bull
Foundation, George J. McLeod Limited, 1934) p. 193.
107 Hoffman, France. Across the Water: Ontario
Immigrants’ Experiences, 1820-1850 (Milton: Global
Heritage Press, 1999) p. 130.
108 James, William. A Sufficient Supply of Clean and
Wholesome Water (Hamilton: 1978) p. 7.
109 Ball, Norman R. Building Canada: a History of
Public Works (Toronto: University of Toronto Press,
1988) p. 222.
114 Ball, Norman R. Building Canada: a History of
122 Streetsville Historical Society, Streetsville Public
Utilities Commission. 1985. p. 14.
123 ‘Sewage Treatment Plants,’ The Municipal
Utilities Magazine, February, 1959. p. 118.
Public Works (Toronto: University of Toronto Press,
1988) p. 235.
124 ‘Municipal Water Supply Systems in Canada,’
115 Peel Health
Canadian Municipal Utilities, Vol. 99, No. 2,
February, 1961. p. 104.
116 Ball, Norman R. Building Canada: a History of
125 Cooper, Russ and Wilton, Gary, Brampton
Public Works (Toronto: University of Toronto Press,
1988) p. 210.
Firefighters: 140 Years of dedicated service, 1853-1993
(Guelph: Ampersand Printing, 1993). p. 19.
117 Weir, Erica and Haider, Shariq. “Cholera
126 Cooper, Russ and Wilton, Gary, Brampton
Outbreaks Continue” Canadian Medical Association
Journal, Vol 70. (Hamilton: McMaster University.
March 30, 2004).
Firefighters: 140 Years of dedicated service, 1853-1993
(Guelph: Ampersand Printing, 1993). p. 20.
118 Manning, Mary. ‘History of the Mills’ Water
Mills in Streetsville (Streetsville Historical Society,
April 1974) p. 2. Available from Mississauga Library
System.
127 Peel Mutual Fire Insurance Company, One
Hundred Years of History 1876-1976. Region of Peel
Archives.
T H E P E E L W AT E R S T O R Y | A W AT E R C U R R I C U L U M R E S O U R C E F O R P E E L S C H O O L S
APPENDIX E: NOTES
96
128 Cooper, Russ and Wilton, Gary, Brampton
137 Bolton, James H. Bolton: Some History and
146 ‘Municipal Water Supply Systems in Canada,’
Firefighters: 140 Years of dedicated service, 1853-1993
(Guelph: Ampersand Printing, 1993). p. 26.
Events (Re-printed from The Bolton Enterprise,
1931). p. 315.
Canadian Municipal Utilities, Vol. 99, No. 2,
February, 1961. p. 74.
129 Cooper, Russ and Wilton, Gary, Brampton
138 Bolton, James H. Bolton: Some History and
147 Water & Pollution Control , Directory 1971.
Firefighters: 140 Years of dedicated service, 1853-1993
(Guelph: Ampersand Printing, 1993). p. 26.
Events (Re-printed from The Bolton Enterprise,
1931). p. 316.
(Don Mills: Southam Business Publications Ltd.). p. 42.
130 James F. MacLaren Associates Consulting
139 Bolton, James H. Bolton: Some History and
Engineers, Report on the Town of Brampton’s Water
Supply. (February, 1955). p. 2.
Events (Re-printed from The Bolton Enterprise,
1931). p. 138.
131 Commission of Conservation Canada. Water
140 Ross, Nicola. Caledon (Toronto: Stoddart
148 Gore & Storrie Limited. 1959 Report to Toronto
Township's Public Utilities Commission, September
14, 1959. From Region of Peel Archives. p.6.
149 Gore & Storrie Limited. 1959 Report to Toronto
Works and Sewerage Systems of Canada. (Ottawa:
Mortimer Company, 1916) p. 112.
Publishing Company Limited, 1999) p. 104.
Township's Public Utilities Commission, September
14, 1959. From Region of Peel Archives. p.4.
141 Corporation of the County of Peel, A History of
150 Tolton, M.G. , Memorandum to Streetsville
132 Report to the Ontario Department of Health
Peel County to Mark Its Centenary as a Separate
County, 1967. p. 204.
Council and Streetsville Public Utilities, February 19,
1966. p. 1. From Region of Peel Archives.
142 Ellison, Bert. The Rise and Fall of McFall Mill, Bolton.
151 Tolton, M.G. , Memorandum to Streetsville
Unpublished article. 1988. p.8. Region of Peel Archives.
Council and Streetsville Public Utilities, February 19,
1966. p. 3. From Region of Peel Archives.
from the Sanitary Engineering Division, Re: Brampton.
October 28, 1924. p. 2. Region of Peel Archives.
133 ‘Directory of Sewage-Treatment Plants in
Canada,’ Water and Sewage, August, 1947. p. 130.
143 Bolton, James H. Bolton: Some History and
134 James F. MacLaren Associates Consulting
Engineers, Report on the Town of Brampton’s Water
Supply. (February, 1955). pp 5-9.
Events (Re-printed from The Bolton Enterprise,
1931). p. 322.
135 James F. MacLaren Associates Consulting
Village’s Council minutes, as recorded in: AllengameKuster, Diane. Answering the Call: A History of
Firefighting in the Town of Caledon (The Town of
Caledon in association with eastend books, 2005).
Engineers, Report on the Town of Brampton’s Water
Supply. (February, 1955). p. 10.
136 Historical facts, such as these concerning the
early Bolton family, often diverge due to inaccuracies
found in secondary sources.
144 This information was compiled from Bolton
145 Canadian Engineer, 1939. (Toronto: Monetary
Times Print Company). p. 96.
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152 R Koci, R. and Munchee, D. Ontario’s Quest for
Clean Water (Ministry of Environment, 1983). p. 6.
APPENDIX F
Appendix F: Index
Aboriginal Peoples .......................... 24, 29, 33, 37, 40, 44, 46, 80
Albion Township..........................................20, 24, 36, 41, 67, 68
Alton .........................................................................23, 54, 63, 82
aquifer .....................................................21, 26, 64, 65, 69, 70, 72
archaeology ....................................................................23, 29, 45
Avro Arrow.................................................................................73
bacteriology..............................................................52, 53, 54, 80
base flow.....................................................................................42
Belfountain.....................................................................13, 54, 57
Big Water Ideas...................................................................8, 9, 12
biodiversity .........................................................11, 17, 19, 23, 42
birds ......................................................................................28, 67
Bolton ..........................................16, 24, 41, 42, 49, 67-70, 72, 80
Bond Head, Francis ...................................................................37
Brampton, City of 16, 23, 25, 28, 37, 43, 49, 51, 53, 58, 60, 61-70, 74-79
Bruce Trail Association..............................................................27
Brulé, Etienne.......................................................................31, 33
Caledon Badlands, see Cheltenham Badlands
Caledon East.................................................16, 22, 54, 70, 80, 82
Caledon Village ....................................................................13, 82
Caledon, Town of13, 14, 16, 21-26, 36-39, 43, 54, 63, 69, 70, 77, 80, 82
Cataract ..........................................................................13, 16, 23
Centreville ............................................................................70, 82
Cheltenham ....................................................................13, 25, 44
Cheltenham Badlands..........................................................26, 27
Chinguacousy Township........................34, 36, 39, 67, 73, 74, 77
cistern ...................................................................................45, 59
civil engineering.............................................................50, 54, 63
Clarkson ...................................................................41, 72, 73, 76
Clarkson Wastewater Treatment Plant ...............................72, 76
climate...........................................................13, 14, 17, 19, 29, 30
Colborne, John...........................................................................39
Cooksville .......................................................................17, 22, 73
Credit Valley Conservation ...........................................23, 24, 28
97
curriculum connections ................................7, 12, 32, 47, 66, 78
deforestation.....................................22, 23, 27, 32, 40, 42, 61, 73
Dundas Road..........................................17, 25, 34, 36, 37, 38, 49
Eldorado Park ............................................................................24
Erin Mills....................................................................................76
Erindale ................................................................................37, 49
erosion...................................13, 16, 18, 22, 23, 26, 27, 28, 32, 78
fauna .....................................................................................24, 26
fire protection .....................................9, 49, 59, 60-64, 68, 69, 73
First Nations .............................................................24, 29, 31-38
Anishinabeg.........................................................17, 29, 30, 31
Iroquois..................................17, 22, 23, 25, 28, 29, 30, 37, 80
Ojibwe..................................................................29, 30, 31, 34
treaties..................................................................35, 36, 51, 67
flooding...........................16, 25, 26, 30, 33, 38, 42, 61, 64, 67, 68
flora.................................................................................24, 26, 28
forest zone...................................19, 20, 23, 24, 34, 37, 40, 41, 42
Carolinian................................................17, 19, 23, 24, 26, 30
Mixed.........................................................................17, 19, 23
G. E. Booth (Lakeview) Wastewater Treatment Plant .......72, 76
glaciers ..........................................................14, 19, 20, 26, 29, 36
Laurentide Ice Sheet .............................................................14
Wisconsin Glaciation Period..........................................14, 17
Grosse Ile....................................................................................52
groundwater wells…..16, 22, 23, 43, 45, 46, 53, 57, 59, 64-70, 72, 73, 74, 82
habitat .................................................9, 16, 17, 19, 22, 26, 42, 67
Hamilton, City of .........................................38, 43, 46, 50, 52, 53
Hurontario Street...............................................17, 22, 36, 41, 73
Hurricane Hazel.........................................................................61
hydrologic cycle .....9-12, 16, 18-22, 26, 32, 44, 47, 49, 54, 66, 76
ice 13, 14, 16, 19, 22, 23, 28, 34, 40, 57, 58, 61, 68
ice age, see glaciers
immigration .............................................................33, 43, 52, 53
Ingersoll, Thomas ......................................................................34
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APPENDIX F
98
Inglewood...........................................................13, 23, 27, 62, 82
Jones, Peter .................................................................................37
Keefer, Thomas Coltrin .......................................................42, 54
Lake
Great Lakes ..................................13, 17, 19, 20, 21, 31, 43, 50
Heart Lake ...................................16, 19, 20, 28, 29, 62, 63, 65
Kettle Lake.............................................................................26
Lake Iroquois.................................................17, 22, 23, 25, 28
Lake Ontario9, 13, 15, 16, 17, 20-25, 28, 30, 31, 33, 34, 36, 37, 38, 40, 41, 42,
44, 50, 51, 54, 60, 67, 70, 72, 73, 75, 76, 77, 80, 81
Lake Peel..........................................................................22, 84
Lake Shore Road ............................................................43, 73, 75
London, England .................................................................48, 53
Malton ..........................................................25, 33, 49, 73, 74, 75
Meadowvale ...............................................................................76
Mississauga14, 17, 20, 23, 25, 26, 33, 35, 36, 37, 38, 41, 43, 49, 56, 60, 67, 73, 76, 77
Mono Mills.....................................................................13, 22, 82
Montreal, City of..........................................31, 34, 40, 45, 52, 73
municipal water ...............................................................4, 45, 60
disinfection......................................................................51, 69
treatment .............................................................72, 74, 75, 77
Niagara Escarpment...........................................13, 16, 22, 23, 27
Nightingale, Florence.................................................................44
Oak Ridges Moraine ..........................................16, 22, 23, 24, 81
Ontario Water Resources Commission ............51, 60, 67, 69, 75
Ottawa, City of .....................................................................48, 54
Palgrave...............................................................16, 22, 24, 70, 82
Pasteur, Louis .......................................................................50, 53
Pearson International Airport...........................23, 25, 46, 73, 74
Peel Children’s Water Festival....................................7, 45, 62, 83
Peel County ......................................42, 43, 44, 51, 52, 68, 74, 79
Peel EcoFair ........................................................................7, 8, 83
Peel Plain ..................................................................21, 22, 25, 30
Perkins Bull, Willam ..................................................................40
T H E P E E L W AT E R S T O R Y | A W AT E R C U R R I C U L U M R E S O U R C E F O R P E E L S C H O O L S
pioneer, see settler
pollution ............................9, 26, 44, 46, 48-51, 54, 64, 76, 80-84
population ..................22, 28, 42-46, 48-53, 55, 56, 60, 61, 65, 67, 69, 70, 75, 80
Port Credit ........................................23, 37, 38, 43, 72, 73, 75, 77
Public Health....................................................................4, 42, 51
Public Works ............................................7, 12, 42, 44, 75, 77, 82
Quebec, City of ....................................................................42, 52
Queenston shale.........................................................................27
Railway
Canadian Pacific..................................................58, 59, 62, 68
Rattray Marsh.....................................................13, 20, 24, 26, 28
Regional Official Plan............................................................9, 72
River
Cold Creek ............................................................................67
Credit River7, 21, 23, 24, 27, 28, 30, 33-39, 41, 48, 56, 57-60, 72, 73, 76
Etobicoke River..................................21, 25, 34, 35, 60-67, 76
Humber River..............................21, 22, 24, 25, 33, 67, 68, 69
Mimico Creek ...........................................................21, 22, 25
Nottawasaga River ................................................................23
Silver Creek ...........................................................................23
Roman aqueducts ......................................................................46
run off.............................................................................16, 61, 73
Ryerson, Egerton........................................................................37
Safe Drinking Water Act............................................................77
Secord, Laura .............................................................................34
settlers................................................24, 34-42, 45, 56, 60, 67, 80
sewage, see wastewater
Silvercreek ..................................................................................54
Simcoe, John Graves ............................................................24, 33
Simcoe, Mrs..........................................................................33, 37
Snow, Dr. James .........................................................................53
Sod Squad...................................................................................79
South Peel System ........................................49, 67, 72, 75, 76, 77
Stanley Mills.........................................................................73, 74
APPENDIX F
99
Stavebank Road....................................................................41, 73
storm water.........................................................16, 24, 51, 61, 76
Streetsville .........................................16, 24, 39, 41, 48-60, 63, 76
Toronto and Region Conservation ...........................................24
Toronto Gore .............................................................................36
Toronto Township ..................................36, 41, 45, 49, 67, 73-77
transportation ..........................................9, 29, 33, 38, 39, 40, 67
tundra ...................................................................................19, 26
United Empire Loyalist........................................................35, 56
Upper Canada.........................................32-39, 47, 53, 62, 66, 67
urbanization.........................................................................23, 42
Walkerton .......................................................................55, 80, 81
War of 1812 ....................................................................36, 43, 56
wastewater7, 10, 12, 44-51, 54, 59, 60, 64, 65, 68, 69, 72, 75, 76, 77, 79, 81
water cylcle, see hydrologic cycle
water efficiency ..........................................................................79
water power
electricity .............................................................57, 58, 60, 63
mills ............................24, 25, 33, 37, 41, 42, 56-59, 67, 68, 69
Water Power
electricity .........................................................................60, 66
mills..................................13, 22, 41, 56, 58, 67, 73, 74, 76, 82
Water Smart Peel..................................................................79, 80
water source protection.............................................................81
Water treatment ...............................46, 51, 64, 69, 72, 74, 75, 77
waterborne disease...............................................9, 48, 52, 54, 80
cholera .....................................................46, 48, 51, 52, 53, 55
typhoid ......................................................................48, 54, 55
watershed..........13, 14, 20, 22-25, 28, 32, 42, 43, 45, 55, 56, 67, 72, 73, 81, 83, 85
Wellhead Protection Area....................................................81, 82
Wetlands ...................................................................24, 25, 26, 28
Creditview Wetland ..............................................................26
World War II ..............................................................................74
York-Peel Water Agreement ......................................................77
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