Bowmanville Creek (french: ruisseau Bowmanville) is a stream in the municipality of

Clarington Clarington ( 2021 population 101,427) is a lower-tier municipality in the Regional Municipality of Durham in Ontario, Canada. It was incorporated in 1973 as the town of Newcastle with the merging of the town of Bowmanville, the Village of Newca ...

Regional Municipality of Durham The Regional Municipality of Durham (), informally referred to as Durham Region, is a regional municipality in Southern Ontario, Canada. Located east of Toronto and the Regional Municipality of York, Durham forms the east-end of the Greater To ...

in south-central

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, Canada. It flows from the

Oak Ridges Moraine The Oak Ridges Moraine is an ecologically important geological landform in the Mixedwood Plains of south-central Ontario, Canada. The moraine covers a geographic area of between Caledon and Rice Lake, near Peterborough. One of the most sign ...

Lake Ontario Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York. The Canada–United States border ...

Bowmanville Bowmanville is a town of approximately 40,000 people located in the Municipality of Clarington, Durham Region, Ontario, Canada. It is approximately east of Toronto, and east of Oshawa along Highway 2. Bowmanville was first incorporated as a to ...

. The creek is under the auspices of the

Central Lake Ontario Conservation Authority Central Lake Ontario Conservation Authority (CLOCA), is a conservation authority established under the Conservation Authorities Act of Ontario in 1958. It forms a partnership with the Province of Ontario, the Ministry of Natural Resources, the ...

Drainage basin

The headwaters of Bowmanville Creek border the headwaters of

Oshawa Creek Oshawa Creek is a watercourse that flows from its headwaters in the Oak Ridges Moraine to its mouth on Lake Ontario, at Oshawa, Ontario Oshawa ( , also ; 2021 population 175,383; CMA 415,311) is a city in Ontario, Canada, on the Lake Ontar ...

(to the west) and those of its left tributary Soper Creek (to the east), the headwaters of all of which are in the Oak Ridges Moraine. Between the mouths at Lake Ontario of Oshawa Creek (to the west) and Bowmanville Creek there are five smaller creeks (from west to east): Farewell Creek, Robinson Creek, Tooley Creek, Darlington Creek and Westside Creek. The next named watercourse to the east is Wilmot Creek. The area of the

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...

of Bowmanville Creek is about ; almost all of the drainage basin is within Clarington, with the exception of a small part of the headwaters which are in the township municipality of Scugog to the north.

Course

Bowmanville Creek begins at the confluence of three unnamed streams near the settlement of Enfield at an elevation of . It flows southeast then turns south near the settlement of Enniskillen, flows under Ontario Highway 407 and reaches the settlement of Hampton. It continues south into the community of Bowmanville, flows under Ontario Highway 401, takes in the left tributary Soper Creek, and reaches its mouth at Port Darlington on Lake Ontario at an elevation of .

Natural history

Bowmanville Creek has been dammed in several places. About one kilometre north of Lake Ontario is the former Goodyear dam, originally built to provide electricity for a factory. This dam was a barrier to fish migration, and until the construction of a fish ladder trout and salmon were lifted over the dam by volunteers and conservation workers. A little further north, in what is now downtown Bowmanville, a dam provided water power for the Vanstone Mill until it was washed out in a storm in 1986.

References

{{Reflist Rivers of the Regional Municipality of Durham