Surface Water Quality Program

The City of Hamilton’s Water Division developed a Surface Water Quality Program (SWQP) that samples surface water locations monthly, throughout the City’s waterways. The purpose of this program is to work with and alongside internal and external Stakeholders to develop and monitor baseline surface water quality conditions. 

Data on the Surface Water Sample Locations is provided through the Open Hamilton Data Portal which is a public-facing resource for up-to-date, easy and transparent data for surface water quality general knowledge, trending, review and research purposes.

Surface Water Sample Locations

The surface water data is exported from the City Laboratory nightly, providing up-to-date surface water quality data through the Open Hamilton Data Portal. Select any sample location on the map to access the data. Once selected, click the ‘Download’ icon near the top left of the Open Hamilton page to access the full dataset through the ‘Download Options’.

Surface Water Quality Parameters

The data collected is reviewed against municipal, provincial and federal regulations and guidelines for general baseline condition purposes only. The guiding documents provide water quality benchmarks, in order to monitor and measure water quality improvements, overtime.  

View a detailed table, outlining the water quality parameters and guiding documents(PDF, 169.18 KB)

Additional water quality data collected within the City of Hamilton and surrounding areas can be accessed, viewed and downloaded from the Great Lakes DataStream. Great Lakes DataStream is an open access platform for sharing information on freshwater health. It brings together water quality datasets collected by monitoring groups throughout the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence Basin.