Lake Saint-Louis

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Lake Saint-Louis
Lac Saint-Louis (French)
St. Louis Lake shore - panoramio.jpg
Lake St. Louis at St-Anne-de-Bellevue looking towards Île Perrot
Canada Quebec relief location map.jpg
Red pog.svg
Lake Saint-Louis
Lac Saint-Louis (French)
Lake st-louis.png
Location map
Location Montérégie region, southwestern Quebec
Coordinates 45°24′05″N73°48′51″W / 45.40139°N 73.81417°W / 45.40139; -73.81417
Type Natural
Primary inflows Beauharnois Canal, Saint Lawrence River, Ottawa River, Saint-Charles River
Primary outflows Saint Lawrence River
Basin  countriesCanada
Surface elevation21 m (69 ft)
Settlements Montreal

Lake Saint-Louis is a lake in southwestern Quebec, Canada, at the confluence of the Saint Lawrence and Ottawa rivers. The Saint Lawrence Seaway passes through the lake.

Lake St. Louis is a widening of the St. Lawrence River in the Hochelaga Archipelago. It is also fed by the Ottawa River via the Lake of Two Mountains at Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, the Beauharnois Canal, the Soulanges Canal, the Saint-Louis River, and the Châteauguay River.

The lake is bounded to the north and the east by the Island of Montreal, by Beauharnois-Salaberry, Roussillon, and Vaudreuil-Soulanges. The town of Beauharnois with its power-dam and canal lie to the south.

The West Island shore is mostly built up with private houses, but it includes some parks and clubs such as the Pointe-Claire Canoe Club, and the Pointe-Claire Yacht Club. Islands in the lake include Dorval and Dowker Islands. Lake St. Louis is the second of three fluvial lakes on the St. Lawrence River; upstream of it is Lake Saint Francis, and downstream is Lake Saint Pierre. Lake St. Louis has an average flow of 8,400 cubic metres per second (300,000 cu ft/s). [1]

The lake has many species of fish, including yellow perch.

A small map by Samuel Champlain of 1611 names the lake. The same year, Champlain reported that a young man named Louys was drowned in what is now known as the Lachine Rapids, and in 1870 Charles-Honoré Laverdière stated that the rapids, and later the lake, were named in honour of the drowned man. A 1656 Jesuit account describes a crossing «Lac Saint Louys». [2]

In 2014 there was a report of fecal coliform flowing into the lake from a Beaconsfield creek, [3] and of PCBs flowing into it from a Pointe-Claire industrial site. [4]

Related Research Articles

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The St. Lawrence River is a large international river in the middle latitudes of North America connecting the Great Lakes to the North Atlantic Ocean. Its waters flow in a northeasterly direction from Lake Ontario to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, traversing Ontario and Quebec in Canada and New York in the United States. A section of the river demarcates the Canada–U.S. border.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Island of Montreal</span> Island in Quebec, Canada

The Island of Montreal is a large island in southwestern Quebec, Canada, that is the site of a number of municipalities, including most of the city of Montreal, and is the most populous island in Canada. It is the main island of the Hochelaga Archipelago at the confluence of the Saint Lawrence and Ottawa rivers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue</span> City in Quebec, Canada

Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue is an on-island suburb located at the western tip of the Island of Montreal in southwestern Quebec, Canada. It is the second oldest community in Montreal's West Island, having been founded as a parish in 1703. The oldest, Dorval, was founded in 1667.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lake Saint Pierre</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lachine Rapids</span> Rapids in the Saint Lawrence river at Lachine, Quebec, Canada

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">West Island</span> Settlements in Quebec, Canada

The West Island is the unofficial name given to the city, towns and boroughs at the western end of the Island of Montreal, in Quebec, Canada. It is generally considered to consist of the Lakeshore municipalities of Lachine, Dorval, Pointe-Claire, and Beaconsfield, the municipalities of Kirkland, Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Baie-D'Urfé, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, the village of Senneville, and two North Shore boroughs of the city of Montreal: Pierrefonds-Roxboro and L'Île-Bizard–Sainte-Geneviève.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pointe-Claire</span> Suburban municipality of Montreal, Canada

Pointe-Claire is a Quebec local municipality within the Urban agglomeration of Montreal on the Island of Montreal in Canada. It is entirely developed, and land use includes residential, light manufacturing, and retail. As of the 2021 census the population was 33,488.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vaudreuil-Soulanges Regional County Municipality</span> Regional county municipality in Quebec, Canada

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lake of Two Mountains</span> Part of the Ottawa River in Quebec, Canada

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coteau-du-Lac canal</span> 18th-century military canal in Canada

Coteau-du-Lac Canal is an 18th-century military canal in Canada located at the junction of the Delisle and Saint Lawrence Rivers in Quebec. The canal was the first work of its kind in North America, and is a National Historic Site of Canada, which also includes the remains of a fort and reconstructed blockhouse. It is located in the town of Coteau-du-Lac in Vaudreuil-Soulanges Regional County Municipality.

The Soulanges Canal is an abandoned shipping canal in Quebec, Canada. It follows the north shore of the Saint Lawrence River between Pointe-des-Cascades and Coteaux-Landing, bypassing the rapids between Lake Saint-Louis and Lake Saint-Francis. In between, it passes through the towns of Les Cèdres and Coteau-du-Lac. It superseded the first Beauharnois Canal which was on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence. It is 23 kilometres (14 mi) long and had a 4.3-metre (14.1 ft) draught. Five locks measuring 85.3 m × 14 m give a total rise of 25 metres (82 ft).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pointe-des-Cascades, Quebec</span> Village municipality in Quebec, Canada

Pointe-des-Cascades is a village municipality in Vaudreuil-Soulanges Regional County Municipality in the Montérégie region of Quebec, Canada. It is located on a spit of land where the St. Lawrence River flows into Lake Saint-Louis. The river has here a significant drop, forming several cascades which give the village its name. The islands of Île des Cascades and Île des Joybert are connected by a narrow causeway, but Île des Cascades and Pointe-des-Cascades are only connected artificially.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saint Charles River (Valleyfield)</span> River in Quebec, Canada

The Saint Charles River is a branch of the Saint Lawrence River that starts in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Quebec, Canada. The river divides the Grande-Île and the Island of Salaberry, which are located approximately 50 km east of Montreal. The river is 8 km long, and drops 24m over its course from Lake Saint Francis east to Lake Saint-Louis.

The Saint-Louis river is a tributary of the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River. This river flows through the municipalities of Sainte-Barbe, Saint-Stanislas-de-Kostka, Saint-Louis-de-Gonzague, Saint-Étienne-de-Beauharnois and Beauharnois, in the Beauharnois-Salaberry Regional County Municipality, in the administrative region of Montérégie, in the Southwest of province of Quebec, in Canada.

References

  1. Environment Canada - fluvial lakes of the St. Lawrence Archived 2014-07-08 at the Wayback Machine
  2. "Lac Saint-Louis". Commission de toponymie. Retrieved 25 June 2014.
  3. "Beaconsfield residents had no idea backyard creek was polluted with fecal coliform". www.cbc.ca. Retrieved 2016-04-09.
  4. "Pointe-Claire pays $435,000 cleanup bill at PCB site on Hymus". Montreal Gazette. Retrieved 2016-04-09.