St. Lawrence River Shoreline Property Owners Encouraged to Take Online Survey

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2017 was a challenging year for property owners and businesses located along the shoreline of the St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario. An extremely wet spring led to record high water levels on St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario, which resulted in flood and erosion damage to a number of shoreline properties. “We’ve seen first-hand some of the severe damages that have occurred to communities along the St. Lawrence River and around Lake Ontario. In some areas these impacts have been truly devastating, and we want to hear from shoreline property owners and businesses about what happened” explains Jean Morin, Canadian member of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Adaptive Management (GLAM) Committee.

The GLAM Committee is conducting an online survey to seek direct input from shoreline property owners and ensure all impacted shoreline residents and businesses have an opportunity to describe what happened to their properties. The survey asks a variety of questions on the extent of flooding, erosion, damage to shoreline structures, and related damage to residential and business shoreline properties. There is also an opportunity to upload pictures to document the extent of flooding/erosion impacts on shoreline properties. “Adding pictures is optional, but encouraged” notes Mr. Morin. While Lake Ontario residents have been quick to respond to the survey, the response rate along the St. Lawrence River so far has been low. As a result, the deadline in Quebec for completing the survey was extended to January 31, 2018. “If you have property on the St. Lawrence River and you suffered damage as a result of the high water levels this year, we want to hear from you”, added Mr. Morin. The information collected in this survey will be used by the GLAM Committee to better understand vulnerable shoreline areas. The survey should take about 10-25 minutes to complete, depending on extent of damage being reported on. To take the survey, please visit https://www.ijc.org/glam and look for the “Take the Survey” link.

The GLAM Committee was established by the International Joint Commission (IJC) in 2015 to examine the effectiveness of the existing rules for regulating the outflows from Lake Superior and Lake Ontario. It is charged with looking at the impacts of past, present and potential future weather and climate conditions on water levels and outflow regulation, and how these factors affect socio-economic and environmental outcomes throughout the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River system.

 

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