State Senator Joe Robach of Rochester is the latest New York State lawmaker joining the chorus that’s calling on the International Joint Commission to lower the water level on Lake Ontario.
Strong northeast winds over the weekend sent waves crashing over breakwaters and flooded yards and homes ankle-deep across Greece, Parma, Hamlin and Hilton. Hundreds of properties were affected and people are still pumping out crawl spaces and basements.
Most lakeshore residents are blaming the new Plan 2014 that lets Lake Ontario rise and fall more naturally with the seasons. But the International Joint Commission has said from early March that it’s an unusually wet early spring to blame. An IJC spokesman says the lake would be at about the same level under the earlier plan from the 1970s.
13 WHAM Meteorologist Scott Hetsko says 9.61 inches of rain has fallen on the Rochester region since the start of March. Lake Ontario is holding at 247.5 feet by today’s measurement, which is a little less than two feet above the long term average for early May.
The IJC also says it’s been releasing as much water as it can through the hydropower dam at Massena down the St. Lawrence River, but it can’t just open the discharge up because the St. Lawrence basin has had the same rains and its banks are also flooding.