The International Lake Ontario – St. Lawrence River Board is meeting today to assess the water levels in the system and how much they can release from Lake Ontario.
The board is a branch of the International Joint Commission. It says Lake Ontario stopped rising last week because of drier weather and increased outflows and will probably stay that way unless we have another several inches of sudden rain. The board says it’s dumping as much water as it can down the St. Lawrence without causing flooding and more erosion for downstream residents…more than 360,000 cubic feet per second, or more than four times the volume of an Olympic swimming pool.
A statement says Lake Ontario outflow is now catching up with the inflow, and if drier conditions continue the lake should start going down.
They say if they go bigger on the water releases, they won’t just flood people out downstream…they’ll start to affect shipping on the St. Lawrence Seaway, which affects business, industry and jobs.