Back in June, the US and Canadian governments received for their consideration Plan 2014, a proposal to regulate water levels in Lake Ontario, from the International Joint Commission. Supporters and opponents of Plan 2014 have been making their voices heard throughout the process. 

This week, a group of 40-plus environmental and sportsmen’s groups sent a letter to US Secretary of State John Kerry urging the State Department to sign off on the plan. They cited several positives, such as increased hydropower production at St. Lawrence River dams and benefits to international shipping.

But supporters emphasize the plan’s environmental benefits. They say that the current regulating plan has created overly stable water levels in Lake Ontario — degrading coastal environments as a result. Plan 2014 is designed to somewhat mimic the variability in lake levels that’d be present without human intervention. Supporters say that change would help restore important coastal habitats — particularly certain types of wetlands — and increase coastal habitat variety.

Supporters have also reached out to officials in New York State. New York’s government also has to approve the plan before the International Joint Commission, a US-Canadian group that handles issues involving water bodies shared between the countries, can implement it.

Opponents of Plan 2014 — primarily residents of communities and counties on Lake Ontario’s southern shore — have their own campaign and are reaching out to state, local, and federal officials for support. They say that Plan 2014 would cause property damage and increase the odds of flooding. Property owners would not be compensated for their losses, they say. 

This article appears in Aug 20-26, 2014.

Covers county government and whatever else comes my way. Greyhound dad; vegetarian; attempted photographer with a love for film and fixer; sometimes cyclist.

2 replies on “Groups push for and against lake levels plan”

  1. This is so typical of our liberal government. We screwed it up over the last 50 years, so now we are going to “fix” it by screwing it up even more.

    Please, please, please fix the schools, NYS must be the dumbest state in the country.

  2. Trying to address Great Lake water levels highlights the need to address environmental imperatives and how to compensate ‘victims.’

    As addressing Climate Change will force us (our governments) to make our life support system sustainable, we must find an economic way to make these regulations that will impact some folks unevenly (say, Great Lakes shoreline property owners) more palatable.

    Trying to restore Great Lakes levels is only one of the measures that will have to be taken as we have to adapt to more extreme weather and climate that will always impact a special few. This doesn’t mean we have to sacrifice these special few each time we trying to make our life support system viable.

    We as a society should find better ways than creative destruction (let the chips fall where they may) to humanely address sometimes drastic environmental regulations.

    We don’t have to supplant our moral system with our economic system; we can address environmental concerns without creating victims who will naturally do anything to protect their own interests—who will form influential groups and we’ll have a shitstorm instead of a solution. Every time critical environmental regulations come up.

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