Lake Ontario level slowly receding
High water levels continue to severely impact Lake Ontario and St. Lawrence River property owners, recreational boaters, businesses and tourism, the International Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence River Board reports.
“Lake Erie remains well above average, and combined with significant rainfall during the past month, the total inflow to Lake Ontario was the second highest recorded in the month of June since 1900,” the agency says in its latest release.
“Yet, despite the near recordhigh inflows and notwithstanding a slight rise in levels following especially heavy showers and thunderstorms on June 22, Lake Ontario levels fell nine centimetres overall last month, eight centimetres more than average and the 11th largest decline in June since 1918.”
The board says at a recent meeting it decided to continue to release water from Lake Ontario, into the St. Lawrence River, at an outflow of 10,400 cubic metres per second. It continues to be the highest ever released from Lake Ontario on a sustained basis. The water is released through 32 turbines at the Moses Saunders Dam between Cornwall, Ont., and Massena, N.Y.
“On the St. Lawrence River, levels near Montreal and further downstream had been declining in general, but rose to near record highs in recent days following a series of storm events. The board continues to monitor and assess conditions in consideration of the impacts that these exceptionally high levels and flows are having in Lake Ontario and the upper and lower St. Lawrence River on all stakeholders, including commercial navigation.”
Based on information from the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp. on navigation conditions, 10,400 cubic metres per second is the maximum that can be released that would still allow continued, though restricted, safe commercial navigation in the St. Lawrence River.
“While wet weather has maintained high levels recently, warmer and drier summer conditions are likely to return, and allow water levels throughout the system to resume their decline,” the release says.
As levels decline, the board says, there will be a gradual reduction in outflows based on information drawn from all of its resources and available technological support. It will continue to monitor lake levels on a daily basis from stations on both sides of Lake Ontario.
Outflow changes, photos, and graphs are posted to the board’s Facebook page at www.facebook. com/International LakeOntario StLawrenceRiverBoard, and more detailed information is available on its website at http:// ijc.org/en_/islrbc. dajohnson@postmedia.com