Monthly Archives: July 2014

by

IJC releases draft of plan for Lake of the Woods | Kenora Daily Miner and News

Excerpt on efforts of IJC on Lake level issues resolution:

“We would like to thank the experts working in the basin on these issues, the International Multi Agency Arrangement partners, the International Rainy-Lake of the Woods Watershed Board and its community and industry advisory groups and Canadian and U.S. indigenous communities for their contribution to the draft water quality plan of study,” said the board’s Canadian study co-chairman Glenn Benoy.

The over 100-page plan is quite detailed and lays out the principles and approaches to be taken while studying the many issues facing the Lake of the Woods basin on both sides of the border.

It includes frameworks with how to interact and involve all of the different governments, communities, private interest and First Nations, which all have a stake in the lake and the research being done.

Continue reading →

by

Legislators more confident after D.C. face-time

Property owners and sport fishing industry voice their concerns to Senators about the IJC Plan 2014 for Great Lakes. Stakeholders have forum with aid of International Joint Commission. Excerpt follows:

“In a conference call with county leaders, Johnson said they stressed their concerns about the plan and its impacts on the southwestern shoreline with legislative aides to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Sen. Charles Schumer.

“It was apparent they were well-versed on the subject,” Johnson said,” and they indicated that they feel no decisions should be made in the short-term … it was a very productive hour.”

Later, Collins’ office hosted the delegates for a meeting with representatives from the State Department’s Office of Canadian Affairs and Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, two groups who will weigh in when the federal government considers the Lake Ontario water level regulation plan.

Godfrey said Collins backed their opposition.

“He told them (Plan 2014) is in violation of the IJC charter, that no plan should result in disproportionate loss to any area from the plan,” Godfrey said. “It needs to be thrown out, let’s not waste any more time on it.”

Johnson said the trip was successful in presenting a view countering the IJC’s, which she said was based on out-of-date info — from the use of old Census data to documents addressing how the plan would effect the long-gone Fast Ferry between Rochester and Toronto.

“Our mission was to tell them that their study group has outdated information,” Johnson said. “I think we really educated them.”

Continue reading →

by

Legislators bash IJC plan, say measure will harm county – The Palladium-Times : Front Page Continued

From Palladium:

“County legislators passed a resolution Thursday urging the U.S. Congress to reject a recent proposal that some officials worry could increase erosion and cause property damage along the shores of Lake Ontario.”

Continue reading →

by

Plan to regulate Lake Ontario water levels amounts to government taking private property (Your letters) | syracuse.com

 Editorial on the 2014 Plan for the Great Lakes:

“As a Lake Ontario shoreline property owner, I appreciate your “sympathy” for “those … negatively affected” by the International Joint Commission’s currentPlan 2014. A new paradigm must be accepted here. The lake, thanks to the IJC, has been turned into a huge reservoir. It is no longer a “natural … waterway.” Those who will be benefiting the most will be the New York Power Authority, the shipping Industry, the St. Lawrence River Valley and Montreal. All four will make or save money on an annual basis. The New York state lake shoreline will pay for it, and annually. Among those who will be negatively affected, or compromised, include 10,000 properties (business and private) on the New York lake shore, and towns, cities and counties.

The IJC has revealed that the Plan will result in 95 percent of the total damage and cost falling on the New York shoreline annually. That “95 percent” was not represented on the IJC Commission, nor in the formulation of the plan. The County of Oswego has over $2 billion in assessments on properties along the lake shore (not counting the nukes); that’s $80 million plus in property and school taxes at risk. That’s hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes along the New York lake shore overall. Even 10 percent losses would be catastrophic to localities. Despite IJC wishful thinking and denial, there will be immense repercussions and unexpected consequences from Plan 2014, on all New Yorkers.”

Continue reading →

by

Gravity detecting floods

When ground water saturates a river basin, the risk for flooding goes up. So does the strength of Earth’s gravity in that region, ever so slightly, because of the extra mass of the underground water. By using tiny variations in gravity detected from space, researchers report online today in Nature Geoscience thatthey can identify basins that are primed for flooding if additional rains come—sometimes with several months’ warning. As a test case, the scientists looked at the gravity signals leading up to catastrophic floods in 2011 on the Missouri River (pictured above). They used data from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), a pair of orbiting satellites that get tugged around the Earth faster in places where gravity is slightly stronger. Using the gravity signal—with its sensitivity to groundwater stores—improved model forecasts and predicted a high discharge 5 months before the 2011 flood. The gravity data was more important for forecasts than measures of snowmelt and soil wetness were. The approach is not yet ready to be rolled into flood forecasts. One problem is that the gravity signal is less important in places where rainfall alone dominates—such as monsoon-driven floods in India and Pakistan. Another problem is that GRACE, with its fuzzy resolution, can see groundwater anomalies only over large river basins, 200,000 square kilometers or more. And third, it takes 3 months or more to get data down from GRACE and process it, which erases much of the warning time.