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Source: International Lake Superior Board of Control

The International Lake Superior Board of Control, under authority granted to it by the International Joint Commission, has set the Lake Superior outflow to 2,050 cubic metres per second (m3/s) (72.4thousand cubic feet per second (tcfs)) for the month of October. Read the rest of this entry »

CATHY DOBSON | Source: Sarnia Observer

[The] underwater videography is now complete and its suggests the riverbed near the bridge hasn’t changed, says John Nevin, communications advisor for the International Upper Great Lakes Study.

That flies in the face of assertions made by Georgian Bay homeowners, who claimed in 2005 that ongoing erosion in the riverbed is causing low lake levels. According to the bathtub theory the riverbed is eroding as a result of past dredging, making the channel deeper. With a larger drain-hole at Sarnia, lakes Michigan and Huron are falling.

… Instead, the study has found that the St. Clair’s riverbed south of the Black River appears to have “significantly” changed in size.

“It might be a result of maintenance dredging or perhaps it’s prop wash from propellers. It’s really too early to say,” said Nevin.

Read the full story at the Sarnia Observer >>

Steve Orr | Source: Democrat and Chronicle

After holding public hearings, the commissioners failed to adopt Plan B+ or anything else. Instead, another plan was developed behind closed doors. That regimen, called Plan 2007 and released early this year, was cast as protecting shoreline properties while aiding the environment somewhat.

More public hearings, including one in Greece, were held. Many shoreline residents said they could live with Plan 2007 or with the current rules. Environmentalists continued to lobby for B+ and panned Plan 2007.

But now that plan, too, is being scrapped by the IJC. In its letter, the commissioners said the hearings revealed “serious divisions” and “little support” for Plan 2007.

Instead, they want help in crafting yet another plan, one that would, according to the IJC letter, “move toward more natural flows to benefit the environment, while respecting other interests.”

For the first time, though, the IJC is asking the government agencies to put together specific plans to deal with the impact of the higher and lower water levels that might result from a pro-environment regimen.

Very lengthy article, quotes from many affected and possible consequences at the Democrat and Chronicle >>

By SCOTT DUNN | Source: Owen Sound Sun Times

Changes to the St. Clair River bed are responsible for a 13-centimetre drop in lakes Huron and Michigan and in Georgian Bay, according to preliminary finding of an extensive binational scientific examination.

The preliminary results were discussed Tuesday night at a public meeting attended by some 75 people at the Harry Lumley Bayshore Community Centre and hosted by the International Upper Great Lakes Study group’s public interest advisory committee.

… this summer’s unusually wet weather has resulted in Lake Huron and Lake Michigan levels 22 centimetres higher than a year ago, the meeting was told. Huron, however, is still 36 centimetres below its 1918- 2007 average for early July.

Ted Yuzykj, the Canadian co-chair of the study group, suggested at the meeting it doesn’t appear the dredging of the northerly mouth of the St. Clair River is the main concern as some suspected.

“There is something going on there,” he said. “Almost 90 per cent” of the area responsible for increased flow is at the south end of the river, he said.

More quotes, details in the full story at the Owen Sound Sun Times >>

by Bill Bradley | Source: NorthernLife.ca

Climate change and water levels in Lake Huron are being discussed at a number of public meetings around Georgian Bay, starting next Saturday in Little Current.

The meetings are being held by the International Upper Great Lakes Study (IUGLS) in communities all around the Georgian Bay region of Lake Huron from August 9 to 12.

Closest to Greater Sudbury is the meeting being held at the Royal Canadian Legion Hall on Vankoughnet Street East in Little Current on Saturday, August 9 from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.

On the same day will be a meeting at the Stockey Centre, 2 Bay Street in Parry Sound from 3 to 5 p.m.

Read the full story at NorthernLife.ca >>

Andy Riga | Source: Canwest News Service

MONTREAL - For the past 50 years, a massive power dam about 100 kilometres southwest of Montreal has used the force of the St. Lawrence River to produce electricity for Ontario and New York. The length of 10 football fields, it produces enough power to supply more than one million homes.

The dam has also been used to regulate how much water from Lake Ontario reaches the St. Lawrence, the source of drinking water for more than half of Quebecers.

Now, for the first time, the International Joint Commission, an independent Canada-U.S. agency, wants to change how it regulates water flow at the Moses-Saunders dam, which straddles the border in Cornwall, Ont., and Massena, N.Y.

Nature Quebec, a coalition representing 100 environmental groups, says proposed changes could have disastrous effects - including flooding, extreme droughts and more pollution - in Montreal and other parts of Quebec.

At a public hearing in Montreal Tuesday tonight, Nature Quebec will tell the IJC that it should not alter how the St. Lawrence is fed because there is too much uncertainty about the effects of climate change.

The IJC’s proposal - known as Plan 2007 - will “allow water to go a little higher and a little lower” than the current system. The proposal will promote the establishment of more diverse flora and fauna, the IJC says.

Read the full story at canada.com >>

Source: Green Bay Press-Gazette

The International Upper Great Lakes Study will hold a public meeting from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday, June 19, at Collins Learning Center at the Crossroads at Big Creek in Sturgeon Bay.

Residents who are interested in and concerned about Great Lakes water levels are urged to attend and to share with scientists personal examples of the impact of changing water levels.

Read the full story at the Green Bay Press Gazette >>

John Myers | Source: Duluth News Tribune

The group will explain its mission, offer the latest water-level information and take public questions and input Monday night at the Depot in Duluth, one of several public sessions this month across the Great Lakes region.

John Nevin, policy adviser with the International Joint Commission, said the commission wants to know whether changing the rules on how dams and gates are operated might help buffer against broad water-level changes over the long haul.

That might help waterfront landowners on Georgian Bay who have been left far from the water’s edge, or Great Lakes freighters that have been forced to reduce loads to account for shallower harbors and slips.

Read the full story at the Duluth News Tribune >>

Eric McGuinness | Source: Hamilton Spectator

The International Joint Commission (IJC) was told last night that its proposed new plan for regulating the level of Lake Ontario jeopardizes the cleanup of Hamilton Harbour and efforts to remove it from the list of Great Lakes pollution hot spots by 2015.

John Hall, co-ordinator of the harbour Remedial Action Plan, Jim Hudson, executive director of the Bay Area Restoration Council, and Tys Theysmeyer, aquatic ecologist for the Royal Botanical Gardens (RBG), presented a united front against the IJC’s favoured Plan 2007, which they said would result in high water at the wrong time for plants and animals.

“Timing is everything in plant and animal life,” Theysmeyer said.

They were joined by Laurel Thompson, who presented a petition signed by 350 people opposed to the plan.

All the Hamilton-Burlington speakers called on the six commissioners to adopt Plan B+…

Read the full story at the Hamilton Spectator >>

By Bill Wolcott | Source: Niagara Gazette

JUNE 9 — Shoreline property owners on Lake Ontario are preparing to buck an environmental plan on a new strategy to regulate the levels of Lake Ontario. They’ll make their case at a public hearing today [June 9] at 7 p.m. at the Olcott Fire Hall.

Two members of the International Joint Commission will conduct the meeting to discuss a $20 million study that was conducted over the past five years. Its purpose was to see if a better plan could be developed. Three plans have been proposed to replace the current Plan 1958.

Tony McKenna, a member of the plan’s Public Interest Advisory Committee, said environmentalists are pushing for Plan B-plus, which would to stretch the current range of water levels. That is, the deepest Great Lake would get higher highs and lower lows.

… Property owners say they are paying taxes on land that is now under water.

Read the full story at the Niagara Gazette >>

by Jeff Alexander | Source: Kalamazoo Gazette

MUSKEGON — Tread lightly when tinkering with Great Lakes water levels.

That was the overriding message delivered to government officials who visited Muskegon Saturday to gather public input on a massive Great Lakes water levels study.

“I’ve lived on Lake Michigan for a long time, and I’ve seen lake levels go up and go down,” said Bob Wygant of North Muskegon. “If you want my advice, leave things alone and let nature take care of it.”

Many more quotes, statistics at the Kalamazoo Gazette >>

by Jeff Kart | The Bay City Times

Eugene Stakhiv, U.S. co-chairman of the study, said previous water level studies, in 1976 and 1993, have concluded that no economically feasible amount of structural changes in the lakes can bring about dramatic changes in levels, reducing highs and raising lows.

“We can’t control the extremes that Mother Nature imposes on the system,” Stakhiv said.

The five-year study, to cost about $14.5 million, will look at whether a 1960s dredging project by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the St. Clair River has caused erosion and a permanent drop in water levels in Lake Huron.

It also will examine whether that increased conveyance can be reduced by physical barriers.

The results of that portion are due in June 2009.

The study also will examine whether changes to existing control structures in Lake Superior, which release water into Lake Huron, can help lessen the negative effects of low water levels here. That portion is due in 2012.

But Stakhiv said he believes there is little the IJC can do to change lake levels during extreme periods of highs and lows.

He added that the effects of climate change may make regulating lake levels even more difficult.

“It may be that there are no useful solutions,” he said.

Slides from Monday’s presentation will be posted online at www.iugls.org, said John Nevin, an IJC spokesman.

Much, much more to the story at the Bay City Times >>

by Jeff Alexander | Source: The Muskegon Chronicle

West Michigan residents concerned about sinking Great Lakes water levels will get a chance to share their views this week when U.S. and Canadian officials studying the issue visit Muskegon.

The International Joint Commission, a U.S.-Canadian panel that advises the two nations on Great Lakes issues, is studying water levels in lakes Michigan, Huron, Superior and Erie. A committee working on the IJC’s International Upper Great Lakes Study will host a public hearing on lake levels Sunday, from 10 a.m. to noon, at Grand Valley State University’s Annis Water Resources Institute, 740 W. Shoreline.

“We want to hear lots of people come out and squawk at this public meeting,” said John Nevin, an IJC spokesman. “We want to hear what this issue means to people when the water is really high or really low.”

IJC officials might get an earful.

… Roger Gauthier, a hydrologist with the Great Lakes Commission, said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers could fix the excessive loss of water down the St. Clair River within a year by installing flow control structures near Port Huron.

“They could control erosion in the St. Clair River with underwater speed bumps — inflatable bladders that could hold back water (in Lake Huron) when water levels are low,” Gauthier said.

When the Corps of Engineers deepened the St. Clair River channel in 1962, the agency drafted blueprints for a concrete weir on the river bottom to control water levels in lakes Huron and Michigan. But the weir was never built because lake levels were generally above average from 1964 through about 1997; water levels have dropped like a stone since 1997.

See: Photo 1 Photo 2 Photo 3

Much more to this excellent story at the Muskegon Chronicle >>

Posted By Megan Harrison | Source: Cornwall Standard Freeholder

The Ontario government has joined the ranks of environmentalists and New York State officials in rejecting the International Joint Commission’s (IJC) Plan 2007 as a viable option for managing the water levels along Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River.

Natural Resources Minister Donna Cansfield announced Wednesday at a Great Lakes Conference in Toronto that the provincial government is backing Plan B-plus, one of the first three options presented to the IJC in 2006.

Plan B-plus favours returning the water levels to their more natural ebb and flow to protect the environment, and would see the waters rise above normal levels during the spring thaw, and drop by several inches in the fall, when the climate is typically dryer.

Read the full story at the Cornwall Standard Freeholder >>

See Also:

• IJC requesting public comment on new Plan 2007 - Great Lakes Maritime Industry Issues
• International Joint Commission (IJC) Website (plans, fact sheets, charts, etc.)

by Jennifer Pritchett | Source: The Kingston Whig-Standard

“Winter navigation of ships in the seaway, invasive species, water quality and inappropriate water levels are issues that threaten the health, sustaining St. Lawrence ecosystem,” [R.A. (Bud) Andress of Save the River in Lansdowne] wrote.

[Mark Mattson of Lake Ontario Waterkeeper] said that it was a lobby to protect shipping and hydro interests that influenced the outcome of the study to bring forward the option presented yesterday.

“It’s not going to restore or win back any of the damage that was done,” he said. “It’s a lost opportunity and many feel that hydro and shipping - the two interests that have been responsible and continue to be responsible for most of the environmental damage on our Great Lakes - once again were somehow able to trump the decision-making process and get their way.”

Much more to the story, quotes at the Kingston Whig-Standard >>

Source: newsli.com

Senator Darrel J. Aubertine (D – Cape Vincent) is calling on the International Joint Commission (IJC), which is reviewing solutions to the water level problems in the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Great Lakes, to approve a previously agreed upon plan to return the waterways to even and consistent levels.

“To approve Plan B+ would turn the St. Lawrence River back to a more natural state and would be much more predictable as far as water levels,” said Senator Aubertine.

The recent IJC report calling for more input and study was met with harsh criticism by some. Aubertine says continuing to study the issue means the Commission “wants the issue more than the solution.”

“The IJC has chosen to essentially maintain the status quo after having spent $20 million and five years trying to come up with an alternative plan,” Aubertine said. “It’s just disheartening that after this much time and effort we come up with this Plan 2007, which again, claims to need more input and study.”

More quotes, story at newsli.com >>