To the Editor:

I have lived along the St. Lawrence River in the Lisbon Beach area all my life, 89 years, and have never before witnessed such a fluctuation of river water levels as there have been in the last 3-5 years.

Last week on the 2nd of May I was at my camp to pick up sticks and cut the grass and the river water then was about normal - 28 to 30 inches below my dock. Today, the 7th of May, I was again at the camp to cut grass and the water level is now about 2 inches over my dock.

Last summer when the river level got very low all the gates at the Iroquois dam were open. Yesterday, on the 6th of May, most of the dam gates were closed. When we have low water the gates are open. When the water level normalizes the gates are then closed. Why?

The only answer I can think of is that Joe Biden and Kathy Hochul are making the decisions on river levels. They certainly have low IQ levels for this.

I could be wrong but I believe that if the gates were properly controlled the water level could be maintained at 2-3 inches of where it should be all the time. The cubic feet per hour flow of the river does not change that much and should be easily measured.

Would someone please explain this operation to me by responding in this paper?

Before the Seaway the water changed very little. Now it changes a lot, so the problem must be man made.

William Bartlett
Ogdensburg