INTERESTING COMPARISONS: CAPACITY AND FLOW RATES OF MISSISSIPPI LAKE
- Anne Gourlay-Langlois
- Apr 25
- 2 min read
Have you ever wondered how much water passes through the lake on any given day? You'd be surprised...!
Of course, amounts will vary during the year, from "a lot" during spring freshets and flooding conditions, to "not nearly as much" during drought conditions. But how much water are we talking about compared to everyday experiences? With this question in mind, I decided to take a deeper (no pun intended) look into water capacities and flow rates relating to the Mississippi Lake and River.
To make sense of the numerous and sometimes confusing quantities involved, I decided to use a series of scenarios to make the information more relatable to readers. I felt this would
be much better than listing data in boring tables and graphs (my apologies to the engineers out there).
For the water capacity of the lake I used a typical water truck as a baseline, and for flow rates I compared them to the town's current and planned capacities and usage. Through this process, I think I have also been able to dispel some misconceptions about usages and flow rates.
As a teaser, the river flow rate at Appleton on 25 Apr 2025 was 114 cubic meters per second. That comes up to 9.85 million cubic meters in 24 hours. This one-day flow is enough to fill about 492 thousand average water trucks. It is also 985 times the maximum pumping capacity of the Carleton Place water treatment plant. So, this is enough water in one day to supply the town for 2.7 years!
For several more interesting, revealing, and fun facts about the amount of water passing through the lake and river, check out the complete article
Note that this article is limited to comparing capacities and flow rates. A host of other issues regarding extreme drought or flood conditions (eg: effects on wildlife, upstream and downstream impacts on wetlands, hydro generation, safe road access, building permits, watershed management, etc.) are not meant to be addressed in this article.
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