Bowmanville Creek

Bowmanville Creek is a stream in the municipality of Clarington, Regional Municipality of Durham in south-central Ontario, Canada. It flows from the Oak Ridges Moraine to Lake Ontario at Bowmanville. The creek is under the auspices of the Central Lake Ontario Conservation Authority.

Drainage basin

The headwaters of Bowmanville Creek border the headwaters of Oshawa Creek and those of its left tributary Soper Creek, the headwaters of all of which are in the Oak Ridges Moraine. Between the mouths at Lake Ontario of Oshawa Creek and Bowmanville Creek there are five smaller creeks : 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 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.