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Sen. Schumer calls on Canadian officials to work with Americans to mitigate future St. Lawrence River floods

Posted 12/9/19

In a meeting with Consul General of Canada Phyllis Yaffe and her successor Deputy Consul General Khawar Nasim, New York’s U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer recently advocated Canadian authorities to …

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Sen. Schumer calls on Canadian officials to work with Americans to mitigate future St. Lawrence River floods

Posted

In a meeting with Consul General of Canada Phyllis Yaffe and her successor Deputy Consul General Khawar Nasim, New York’s U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer recently advocated Canadian authorities to work with their American counterparts in taking measures to prevent St. Lawrence River flooding similar to 2017 and 2019.

The senator’s office said Schumer called for the officials to advocate for enhanced shipping safety maneuvers and concurrent increased outflows at the Moses-Saunders Dam in Massena to both the Canadian Seaway and to the Canadian commissioners of the International Joint Commission (IJC).

Schumer argued that while the outflows are already significant, there is further room to increase them when done in conjunction with enhanced shipping safety measures. Schumer’s office said this would continue safe shipping along the Seaway and help ensure that both residents of upstate New York and Canada have their high risk of future flooding mitigated. Last month, Schumer also urged the St. Lawrence Seaway and American commissioners of the IJC to support increased outflows at the Moses-Saunders Dam.

“During our meeting, I told Consul General Yaffe and Deputy Consul General Nasim that we need to do more—now—to mitigate flooding risks in the spring, especially increasing outflows at the Moses-Saunders Dam in conjunction with enhanced shipping safety maneuvers. After experiencing record flooding in two of the last three years and already seeing sky-high water levels this season, there is an urgent need to act now to prevent the worst,” Schumer said in a prepared statement. “That’s why I called on our Canadian partners to support the further increase of outflows at the Moses-Saunders Dam and to express that support to the Canadian Seaway and Canadian Commissioners of the IJC, as I have done on the American side. With the risk of a repeat of these immense damages looming, we must take every sensible measure possible to protect communities along Lake Ontario.”

Last summer, in the midst of flooding season, when the Moses-Saunders Dam outflows were increased to 200 cubic meters per second above the normal safe navigation flow limit the Saint Lawrence Seaway accommodated the increased outflows by employing additional operational and navigation safety precautions such as speed controls in sections of the Seaway, a prohibition on meeting or passing vessels in certain areas, positioning a tug boat at some locks to assist vessels if needed, and reduced speeds to minimize vessel wakes, Schumer’s office said.

With Lake Ontario’s water level currently 19 inches higher than the average for this time of the year and a repeat of last year’s historic flooding looking likely, Schumer called for the immediate institution of all the enhanced security protocols to enable increased dam outflows.