Each day, city residents use 45 million litres of water, taken from the Otonabee River.

That fluid travels through 412 kilometres of piping, helps feed 2,160 fire hydrants and the whole system is worth an estimated $600 million

Wayne Stiver, vice-president of water services for the Peterborough Utilities Group, provided those numbers to about 40 people at the Peterborough Public Library on Aylmer St. Tuesday afternoon.

Stiver was the guest speaker during the two-hour event marking World Water Day.

He gave the group a brief history of drinking water and water treatment in the city.

Representatives from Peterborough Green-Up, the Otonabee Region Conservation Authority, Kawartha Turtle Trauma Centre, the Riverview Park and Zoo and the Kawartha World Issues Centre were all on hand to speak to guests and hand out information.

At Trent University, the political studies department hosted a research panel on issues relating to global warming and fossil-fuel dependence.

Speakers included Robert Paehlke, Jacqueline Medalye, Jo Hayward-Haines and a keynote address by York University professor Anna Zalik.

Michael Gibbs, co-ordinator for Lakeland Alliance, said the day is about taking a moment to think about local water resources.

That includes the small picture, like what goes into making water clean to drink, to the big picture, like what we’re putting into local watershed systems, he said.

Stiver said Peterborough first began thinking of a municipal water system in 1870.

It wasn’t because people needed water for drinking, or bathing, he explained. Most had private wells.

“It was for fire protection,” he said. “A lot of the community was made of wood.”

By 1882 the Peterborough Water Company, a private organization, was created. By 1902, Stiver said, the Town of Peterborough purchased the water system for $230,000, buying 30 kilometres of water mains and 129 hydrants.

Back then, Stiver said, the system pumped out 4.5 million litres of water each day, at a cost of 35 cents per 1,000 gallons.

Today that same amount of water costs $3.50, he said.

Stiver said the city began thinking about a water filtration system in 1905.

In 1916 Ottawa was struck by a Typhoid epidemic, he said, prompting the city to mix chlorine into the water.

In 1922 Peterborough Utilities installed a complete rapid sand filtration plant for $300,000. Stiver said they were the first city in Canada to do it, and it’s still a part of the plant today.

“It’s something we’re very, very proud of,” Stiver said.

NOTE: The Riverview Park and Zoo began in 1935. Stiver explained that Ross Dobbin, the general manager of Peterborough Utilities, received two alligators as a gift. Unable to set them free in the Otonabee River, Stiver said he built a small pond next to the pumping station for the two reptiles.

People began coming to the pump station to see the gators, he said, and over the years the company gradually acquired more animals.

See original article by Sarah Deeth via City’s water use, history explained on World Water Day – Peterborough Examiner – Ontario, CA.