Etobicoke & Mimico Creeks Watersheds Features
Etobicoke Creek Watershed
A unique feature part of the Etobicoke's geology is the Brampton Esker. Located in the City of Brampton, the esker rises north of Mayfield Road and runs between Hurontario Street and Kennedy Road south to Queen Street. The esker is a long, winding ridge of sand and gravel deposited by glacial meltwaters during the final retreat of the Ontario lobe of the Laurentide Ice Sheet. It is the only esker in Toronto and Region Conservation's jurisdiction.
Facts:
• 2006 marked the 60th Anniversary of Conservation in the Etobicoke and Mimico Creeks Watersheds: one of the first conservation authorities in Ontario
• Heart Lake, located within the Heart Lake Conservation Area, is a kettle lake formed over 10,000 years ago when a block of ice separated from the receding glacier and, because of its weight, formed a pit as it melted.
• Teapot Lake is a small meromictic lake, in which the bottom layer of the water never mixes with the upper layer, one of the only two meromictic lakes in Ontario.
• The original mouth of the Etobicoke Creek featured two channels surrounding an island. The low-lying area was popular for summer and year-round cottages, yet prone to flooding.
• During Hurricane Hazel in 1954, 56 cottages and houses were destroyed, seven people died and 365 were left homeless. In the following years, the land would be purchased and converted into the Marie Curtis Park with not a trace of the original creek mouth remaining.
• Lester B. Pearson International Airport is the single largest land-use in the Etobicoke Watershed and has been a leader in environmental stewardship. They were the first North American airport to institute an environmental management system (ISO 14001), were the first airport in Canada to build a co-generation plant to provide both electricity and heat for their operations, and have made substantial investments in state-of-the-art stormwater controls and habitat restoration.
• Currently, 9% of the watershed areas are publicly accessible greenspace. Significant progress has been made in developing a network of trails in the watersheds, with two thirds of the desired trail network now in place. Once complete, the public will have access to 192 kilometres of trails in the Etobicoke Creek watershed and 101 kilometres of trails in the Mimico Creek watershed.
Mimico Creek Watershed
The Origin of the Watershed's Name: "Mimico" comes from the Algonkian word "Omimeca" meaning "resting place of wild pigeons". The extinct passenger pigeon used the mouth of Mimico Creek as a migratory stopover.
The Mimico watershed is a completely urbanized watershed within Toronto and Region Conservation's jurisdiction, with over 30% of its landmass featuring industrial land-uses and over 60% of its reach artificially channelized. As a watershed shaped so extensively by human intervention, its management requires close attention to the protection, enhancement and expansion of its remaining natural systems and the improvement of its water quality by improving and limiting urban storm water runoff.
Facts:
• The Avro Arrow, Canada's first super-sonic jet, was created in the Mimico watershed.
• Humber Bay Park on Toronto's waterfront is often mistaken as the mouth of the Humber River, but is in fact the mouth of Mimico Creek. Up until the 1970s, when the two large landfill parks (Humber Bay Parks East and West) were constructed on either side of the Mimico's mouth, the creek flowed directly into the lake below Lake Shore Boulevard West.
• Hockey Hall of Fame inductee and former Stanley Cup winning Edmonton Oilers defenseman Paul Coffey grew up in the Mimico Watershed in Malton.
| Land Use (2002) | Etobicoke |
Mimico |
||
| Type |
% |
ha |
% |
ha |
| (a) Urban land use |
71.52 |
15227 |
97.64 |
7388 |
| (b) Rural land use |
23.01 |
4900 |
0 | 0 |
| (c) Natural Cover |
5.47 | 1165 | 2.36 | 180 |
| Total |
100 | 21292 | 100 | 7568 |
| Watershed Area: |
21,100 | 7700 | ||
| TRCA owned |
375 | 43 |
Places of Interest in the Etobicoke and Mimico Watersheds
Places of Interest in the Etobicoke and Mimico Watersheds:Lester B. Pearson International Airport
The airport straddles both watersheds, covering 1640 hectares of land. Most of the airport drains to Etobicoke Creek, including runways, cargo areas, Terminal Three, Terminal One aprons, and infield areas. Although runoff contamination from these sources is a concern, significant progress has recently been made to mitigate the airport's impact on water quality through the expanded use of waste water and storm water recovery and containment systems.
The Brampton Esker
An esker is a long, winding ridge of sand and gravel deposited by glacial meltwaters which flowed through crevasses and channels within or beneath an ice sheet. Etobicoke Creek's Brampton Esker is the only esker in Toronto Region Conservation's area of jurisdiction.
Professor's Lake
This community is located in Brampton, around a rehabilitated gravel pit within the Brampton Esker. These old pits provide excellent opportunities for community enhancement, recreation, and fish and wildlife habitat.
Heart Lake
Heart Lake is a kettle lake, meaning it was formed during the Wisconsin glacial period over 10,000 years ago when blocks of ice trapped under glacial overburden melted, causing a natural, steep-sided depression on the earth's surface. Heart Lake, located in the City of Brampton and the Etobicoke Creek watershed, is the centerpiece of the TRCA's Heart Lake Conservation Area and offers many opportunities for outdoor recreation.
Teapot Lake
Teapot Lake is another glacially formed kettle lake located in the Etobicoke Creek watershed within the Heart Lake Conservation Area. This lake is unique in southern Ontario because it is meromictic, which means that the deeper waters in the lake are stagnant and never mix to the surface to become re-oxygenated.
