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7. Hidden Water in the Landscape: The Covered Reservoirs of Mount Royal
- University of Pittsburgh Press
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115 Hidden Water in the Landscape The Covered Reservoirs of Mount Royal Susan M. Ross 7 Located on an island within a major river, with a small mountain near its center, Montreal occupies an exceptional site. The ample supply of water from the St. Lawrence River and Mount Royal’s height of more than 230 meters (760 feet) offered a unique opportunity for the development of the city’s water supply system. It was also a setting in which engineering concepts—such as the construction of distribution reservoirs on the mountain, beginning in 1852, the chemical treatment of the river water, beginning in 1910, and the covering of the reservoirs starting in 1938—redefined the landscapes of water supply and reflected a shift in the relationship between the city and its water. The reservoirs of Mount Royal continue to operate today, in buried infrastructure landscapes that illustrate the combined organic and constructed character of urban technical systems. The use of the mountain’s stepped height, rock solidity, and, initially, relative isolation to build basins that store river water at suitable locations for distribution throughout the city has been fundamental to the development of the system. While the mountain has served as the city’s virtual “water tower” for more than 150 years, this essential function , and its role in the planning and development of the urban landscape, has rarely been related to the history of the mountain’s transformation. This change includes its development as an urban green space, most notably its de- 116 - Susan M. Ross signed park space, and the more ornamental water features this park would eventually contain. Initially constructed as open basins of untreated river water, these exposed water landscapes would be rebuilt into discreet lawn-covered tanks of treated water. This reconfiguration of the reservoirs corresponds to a period that transformed the city’s relationship to the increasingly polluted river water. As the public acceptance of river water became increasingly dependent on treatment and scientific analysis, the landscapes that contained treated river water were called upon to be protected but also to disappear. In discussions of water supply and its history, the concept of water purity has proven to be an elusive one. At different times and according to different standards, “pure” water can mean either the water found in nature and/or the water treated with various processes.1 The use of purity as a concept became more prevalent with the introduction of purification processes and lab tests.2 The reservoirs were transformed from open basins containing water found in nature and originally considered relatively pure to covered tanks protecting water now made “pure” by human efforts. As efforts were made to transform the reservoirs, the original design intentions of the adjacent landscape of Mount Royal Park were increasingly forgotten .3 In 1938, when work to cover reservoirs began, plans were introduced to build an ornamental open basin in the middle of the park. Built in a curving irregular plan form surrounded by a low stone wall, Beaver Lake could be considered an early Montreal example of modern naturalistic design.4 But lasting confusion about the source of its water, in fact a mixture of both rainwater and treated water from the city’s supply, reflects an unquestioned shift in ideas about how to express the constructed as opposed to the organic in this landscape.5 Popular perceptions of Mount Royal Park as an area of preserved wilderness in the city, one in which technical functions are seen as intrusions, has also made integration of the reservoir sites in plans for the mountain’s green spaces a challenge.6 Yet an awareness of how much of Mount Royal Park itself is designed, constructed, and dependent on technical systems is critical to positioning our role in managing such landscapes today. Sanitary services are a common subject of urban environmental history.7 However, histories of urban water supply and sewage and waste systems tend to focus on political, technical, and social dimensions, paying less attention to the built character of these landscapes, their natural context, or patterns of urban development such as streets, parks, and other land uses.8 Indeed, a historical understanding of how these systems were designed and constructed, and how they functioned and evolved, as an integral part of the urban en- [44.192.38.143] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 06:24 GMT) Hidden Water in the Landscape - 117 vironment is critical to planning their often-needed renewal. The increasing number of...