Sources Of Water In Lake Ontario

Our community’s source of water is Lake Ontario. However before the water arrives to our taps it undergoes a long cleansing process. This process includes pumping, storing and distributing the water.

There are many ways to store water works systems. Some systems, because of local needs, store their source water in large natural or man-made reservoirs, essentially small lakes. These are often created by the damming of mountain streams, and in many cases, normal recreational activities are permitted.
In Toronto, with abundant supply available from Lake Ontario, such reservoirs are unnecessary and water storage facilities consist of "in-system storage" provided by treatment plant, ground level reservoirs and elevated tanks.
In-system storage
The system also includes four elevated tanks, which, being of small capacity, are only suitable for small areas.
Toronto Water is responsible for water pressures in the city wide water distribution system. Pressures are achieved and maintained by pumping.
The source of water for the City of Toronto is Lake Ontario, and since Toronto is built on the side of a hill, it is necessary, after treatment, to pump the water up from the lake, often times, before it can be delivered to the consumer.
The pumps which raise the pressure of the water in effect "push" it from a lower to a higher level. The pumps in use in Toronto's water system are of the centrifugal type that is the production varies with demand and there are no pulsations. The 120 pumping units installed in our stations range in size from 1.5 megalitres per day to 180 ML/d.
The Toronto area is divided into six operating levels or zones which result in 12 separate pressure districts. The ground elevations in each zone were selected so that the water system pressure in the zone, under normal pumping conditions, varies from a minimum of 275 kiloPascals (kPa) to a maximum of 793
The control centre is located centrally in the system at High Level Pumping Station and, by means of the supervisory equipment, the operator is provided with all necessary information on pressures, flows, reservoir levels, etc., so that operation of each station can be monitored, controlled and integrated with others in the same pressure district. As a result, the operator can maintain a proper balance between the various pumping stations serving each district, in conjunction with storage reservoir levels, water pressures and consumption. The operator is also provided with information on power consumption so that electrical loads efficiently and effectively in accordance with the hydro rate