Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

International board meets again to talk about lake levels

The International Lake Ontario – St. Lawrence River Board meets on Monday to talk about the release of water throughout the system and the recent flooding along the river and the south shore of the lake.

The board issued a statement late last week saying that months of precipitation produced the highest recorded water levels on Lake Ontario since records were kept over the last 100 years.

The board says the lake level was stable for several days as the result of drier weather and increased outflows, and barring significant additional rainfall, the lake level may have halted its rapid rise.

But the statement says that due to the huge surface area and large volume of water in Lake Ontario, it will take several weeks to significantly reduce water levels.

The international board can regulate water levels to some extent through a dam in the St. Lawrence River near Massena.

A number of local officials and residents along the lake in Western New York have blamed changes caused by Plan 2014 which went into effect earlier this year, but the international joint commission has said most of the problem is due to the unusually heavy rainfall this year.

Randy Gorbman is WXXI's director of news and public affairs. Randy manages the day-to-day operations of WXXI News on radio, television, and online.