Oops — too much water drained from Lake Ontario
Efforts to avoid flooding go too far, IJC now working to raise water levels
Property owners along the shores of the St. Lawrence River and some parts of Lake Ontario are complaining about water levels. That’s not really news, they’ve been unhappy many times in recent years, particularly 2017 and 2019 when high water flooded docks and led to waves damaging shores and homes and boat houses.
But the 2021 complaints are different, now water levels are too low and many can’t put their docks or boats into the water.
High or low, the complaints go to the International Joint Commission(IJC) the Canada/United States body that oversees the Great Lakes and other waterways and tries to manage water levels. In response to complaints and lawsuits about the high water levels, the IJC argued it could do little to effect much change and most of the increase was due to wet weather caused mostly by the changing climate.
But under pressure since the 2019 flooding and narrowly avoiding problems in 2020, the IJC took efforts last fall and into the winter to drain more water than normal out of Lake Ontario through the Moses-Saunders Dam that is located near Cornwall, ON.
“Someone panicked and let out way too much water,” one owner complained on the International Lake Ontario — St…
