Question 7. Why wasn’t more water released in 2018 when Lake Erie levels were high and downstream flooding wasn’t an issue?
Answer:
Summary for Week Ending 11 December 2019
The average Lake Ontario outflow is expected to be 8,820 m³/s for the coming week. This flow rate is 200 m³/s above the normal safe navigation flow limit that applies at the current Lake Ontario elevation as defined by the regulation plan.
Wet conditions throughout the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River basin in the spring of 2019 resulted in record or near-record high water levels this past summer on all of the Great Lakes.
When water supplies exceed capacity in the Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence River system, water levels rise. When this happens, regulation is looked to as the solution. But during periods of extreme water supply, the ability of regulated outflows to influence Lake Ontario levels is greatly diminished…
Were you impacted by high water levels along the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River shoreline in 2019?
HIGH LAKE ONTARIO OUTFLOWS CONTINUE - The outflow from Lake Ontario remains very high and it continues to be gradually increased in response to rising Lake Ontario levels and persistently high inflows from Lake Erie.
A new report by the Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence River Board provides a detailed account of the record-breaking flood of 2017, and what the board did to reduce the levels on Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River.
The creation of the Moses-Saunders hydropower dam across the St. Lawrence River in the late 1950s provided an ongoing abundant supply of electricity, but the regulation of river flows it allowed constrained water levels on Lake Ontario and the upper St. Lawrence River unnaturally. As a consequence…