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September 15, 2006 - Mr. and Mrs. Mark and Karen Wood, Penfield, New York

We are writing to urge the International Joint Commission to adopt Plan B+.

Lake Ontario is under considerable stress, with invasive species in particular having developed in recent years as a very serious threat to the long-term health of the lake. Plan B+ would best mitigate the ever present risks from invasive species. The water fluctuations associated with Plan B+ would also benefit the wetlands that surround the lake, and help buffer it from pollution.

As the American Congress wrestles with funding a restoration plan for the Great Lakes, Plan B+ represents a positive contribution with little governmental cost. Although I hope Congress does indeed fully fund restoration efforts, I worry they may not. The risk that such efforts are not funded makes the selection of Plan B+ even more important.

The Study Board's report well describes the benefits of Plan B+:

Plan B+ strives to return the Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence system to a more natural regime, with conditions similar to those that existed prior to the St. Lawrence River Hydropower Project, while at the same time attempting to minimize damages to present interests. In comparison with Plan 1958-D with Deviations, it does indeed provide overall improvement for the natural environment on Lake Ontario and the upper St. Lawrence River. It also provides net benefits for hydropower and commercial navigation. Its downside is that it results in higher damages for Lake Ontario shoreline properties and is associated with increased flood damages on the lower St. Lawrence River. Although Plan B+ has some negative recreational boating numbers, at public meetings, many in the boating community, especially on the upper St. Lawrence, supported Plan B as presented at the summer 2005 public meetings prior to its final "fine tuning." From their point of view, this plan has better St. Lawrence River and Lake St. Lawrence performance, generally higher Lake Ontario levels in spring and fall, and better overall performance for boaters more than half of the time than Plan 1958-D with Deviation. In the eyes of many, Plan B+ is the only candidate plan that consistently transforms and improves the diversity and productivity of the natural ecosystem, addresses species at risk legislation objectives, and represents an important step forward towards a level of ecological integrity that would otherwise be difficult to achieve.

We therefore urge the IJC to adopt Plan B+.

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