Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence River Study

The IJC established the International Lake Ontario and St. Lawrence River Study Board in December 2000 to undertake the studies needed to evaluate options for regulating levels and flows in the Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence River system (see Key documents for details).

On May 31, 2006, the Study Board released its final report to the Commission. The report is the culmination of the five-year, US$20 million study which has improved understanding of how regulation affects the environment, recreational boating, flooding, shoreline erosion, navigation, hydropower production and municipal and industrial water uses from Niagara Falls, New York and Ontario, to Trois-Rivières, Quebec.

The report can be viewed at www.losl.org.

The Study Team, a partnership of the Board and its Public Interest Advisory Group, was a bi-national group of diverse experts from government, academia, native communities and interest groups representing the geographical, scientific and community concerns of the Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence River system.

The Team involved the public throughout the study by asking for their opinions, considering their input and incorporating their concerns with the science work of the technical workgroups to deliver recommendations for new criteria and plan options for water level and flow regulation to the IJC.

After five years' work, the Team narrowed the options down to three plans for regulating the outflows from Lake Ontario through the international hydropower project at Cornwall, Ontario and Massena, New York. Each of the plans could be considered as a change to the IJC's existing regulatory regime, each of which provides net economic and environmental improvements to the existing plan.

The Study Board and its Public Interest Advisory Group held 15 public meetings during the summer of 2005 to present the new draft regulation plan options. The Study Board used public comment from those meetings, in addition to some other focused meetings with specific interest groups, to refine its work.

In 2005, the IJC contracted the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with the Royal Society of Canada, to conduct an independent review of some key aspects of the Study, including the science and analysis related to certain environmental work, coastal erosion and flooding, and the key scientific models for the Study. This independent review adds further questions for consideration by Commissioners as they review the IJC's Order of Approval. The IJC response and a link to the review are available at www.losl.org/reports/reports-e.html.

See www.losl.org for a full description of the study as well as access to the modeling applications that show the effects of the various plans.

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