The group that campaigns for controls against “extremely high water levels” in Lake Ontario is emphasizing that message this Earth Week.
President of United Shorelines Ontario Sarah Delicate says there is often talk of how flooding financially affects businesses or homeowners.
Delicate tells Quinte News that Earth Week is a good time to consider the damage that flood waters do to the environment.
She adds, “The long-term impact to the dunes that have been wiped away, the nesting grounds, the pollution, the contamination of people’s drinking water … all of that gets under-reported. It’s the side effects of having these incredibly high lake levels. In some cases, not only will it take decades to repair, in some cases it will never be repaired.”
Delicate points to her hometown of Clarington where firefighters are making a difference.
She says, “You have other municipalities that are doing nothing for home owners, or putting sand in bags in the town and saying help yourself, but when you’re 80 years old or 75 years old that’s actually not a solution. Another big part of what we’ve been doing is advocating for actual flood mitigation that pays attention to the social vulnerability at the shoreline.”
United Shoreline Ontario, with a membership of 800, advocates against high Lake Ontario water levels they say are partially caused by the International Joint Commission’s Plan 2014.
This is the plan that determines the water levels on the Moses-Saunders Dam at Cornwall, controlling water that flows from the Great Lakes into the St. Lawrence River.
Delicate adds that her group supports a group in New York State that wants to take the Commission to court but is not involved in that issue.
