Environment: Grand River

[ookpik]

Grand River: A waterway’s rise to its former greatness 

Once pristine, once navigable by steamwheelers running upstream as far as Brantford, once subject for 19th-century landscape artist Homer Watson’s bucolic The Flood Gate that hangs in the National Gallery, the Grand River was for decades so abused by waste and industrial pollution that, in 1937, Maclean’s magazine described it as “an open sewer” downstream from Kitchener and Waterloo.

In a report presented at the first annual convention of the Canadian Institute on Sewage and Sanitation, held in Toronto on Oct. 18, 1934, it was said that the industrial waste from two abattoirs, three tire and rubber factories, three tanneries, a glue factory and a dye works “make the Kitchener sewage the strongest known in Canada.”

And yet this late-fall day in 2015, with the fog lifting, there are other canoeists on the Grand, and flyfishers after the brown trout that today thrive in the river below Kitchener. There are ducks and osprey and, suddenly, an eagle swoops over the shoreline willows, down close to the water and away again with our breath...

[tomh009]

My question is, how much water did the Grand have historically? Has it always been this shallow? I have not been able to find an answer to this question.

[plam]

My question is, how much water did the Grand have historically?  Has it always been this shallow?  I have not been able to find an answer to this question.

I don't have the answer to that particular question (although I'm sure that if you walked around at the University of Waterloo you could find people either in Geography or Civil Engineering who know that). I do know that Silver Lake and the adjoining watercourses used to run deeper and faster than now. Also part of the problem with Victoria Lake being smelly is that water doesn't flow as much, I believe (although with less conviction than about the Waterloo waterways).

For your specific question, as far as I can tell, the Grand River was historically only navigable up to Brantford, with the aid of canals created by the Grand River Navigation Company, subsequently superceded by the rails.

http://www.chrs.ca/Rivers/Grand/Grand-F_e.php

[Memph]

My question is, how much water did the Grand have historically?  Has it always been this shallow?  I have not been able to find an answer to this question.

I don't have the answer to that particular question (although I'm sure that if you walked around at the University of Waterloo you could find people either in Geography or Civil Engineering who know that). I do know that Silver Lake and the adjoining watercourses used to run deeper and faster than now. Also part of the problem with Victoria Lake being smelly is that water doesn't flow as much, I believe (although with less conviction than about the Waterloo waterways).

For your specific question, as far as I can tell, the Grand River was historically only navigable up to Brantford, with the aid of canals created by the Grand River Navigation Company, subsequently superceded by the rails.

http://www.chrs.ca/Rivers/Grand/Grand-F_e.php

I think some North American rivers have become less navigable due to erosion of the banks and adjacent land and sediment deposition in the river beds, causing them to be wider but shallower. I wonder if this happened to the Grand River too?

[clasher]

I imagine the dams upstream have changed the river flow a lot but I would guess they also trap a lot of sediment over the years that would have flowed downstream too. The pond at Vic Park flows better since they made changes to the canal upstream of it and once (if?) they finish naturalizing the creek between Westmount rd. and Vic Park I think the water quality will improve even more. There's a documentary on netflix called "Dam Nation" that I found really informative about some of the effects of damming on rivers. I'm not old enough to remember the big flood of 70s but it seems clear to me that dams and dikes have mostly prevented something that dramatic from happening again.

The GRCA site has lots of great information about the history of the river and I think they are largely responsible for the amazing rehabilitation of the river.

[tomh009]

The Grand doesn't really appear to have all that much sediment: the bottom (especially in the shallows) is mostly stones, not mud.