Mayors make low water levels a high priority

By Emily Innes, Collingwood Enterprise-Bulletin October 9 2012 

South Georgian Bay politicians are making low water levels a high priority issue.

Simcoe-Grey MP Kellie Leitch invited local mayors to Ottawa, Wednesday, to meet with Minister of Environment Peter Kent and Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Fisheries and Oceans Randy Kamp to discuss the declining water levels in Georgian Bay.

“The meeting was excellent, very positive and very constructive,” said Leitch. “After listening to many constituents that had called me, I thought we had to act. One way we can act is by engaging the Minister of the Environment and engaging Fisheries and Oceans and educating them on what our challenges are.”

Leitch was joined by Simcoe North MP Bruce Stanton, Collingwood Mayor Sandra Cooper, Simcoe County Warden and Wasaga Beach Mayor Cal Patterson, Tay Township Mayor Scott Warnock, and Deputy Mayor of Tiny Township George Lawrence.

The E-B reported last week that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) have predicted the Georgian Bay water levels could reach a historic low this winter.

According to The USACE’s September bulletin, water levels in Georgian Bay have remained about 30 centimetres below average.

A recent study by the International Joint Commission (IJC) on Canada-U.S. boundary water levels in Georgian Bay show a decline of 1.6 metres from their 1997 high point, and have been lower-than-average for 13 years.

“It impacts shipping, tourism, and recreational boating,” said Cooper, who is also a board member of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative.

Cooper said another serious problem for the Town is that pleasure crafts are running ashore in the harbour – which occurred twice this past summer.

The group presented those concerns as well as information about dying birds and bottom feeders, such as lake sturgeons, that are being poisoned by the algae bloom.

After consulting with engineers at the Sierra Club, they proposed placing submerged sills in St. Clair River.

The chair of Sierra Club Mary Muter said the submerged sills are hollow concrete blocks that are filled with water and dropped in strategic locations of the lake bed and they act as speed bumps to restore the water levels.

The club has been studying the issue for more than 10 years since they linked water quality issues with declining water levels.

They are urging that the IJC be directed to restore Lake Michigan, Huron, and Georgian Bay water levels by 25 cm gradually – using other means than water locks and dams.

“We are talking about restoring what we have lost and by doing that they will have to restore the river bed and stop once and for all this downward trend,” said Muter.

Their recommendations would cost about $100 million to implement.

“I told them that, but I said to ‘a big organization like the federal government, that’s a drop in the bucket,’” said Patterson.

He said he has been trying to push this issue for many years, and at one point a minister told him it was only cyclical and that the levels would rise again.

“It is not cyclical,” he said.

Patterson said for Wasaga Beach – the largest fresh water beach in the world – the water is their livelihood through the business of tourism and he is trying to maintain the beach like it once was before declining water levels, and phragmites take over beach areas.

“We are looking for solutions, so now it’s a matter of us following it up and making sure things are happening,” said Patterson.

Leitch says she will meet with the mayors again to develop a plan to go back to the minister with after he has processed the initial information.

Kent declined to comment at this time.

by Jim Birchard Bayshore Broadcasting October 13, 2012 

Simcoe North Conservative MP Bruce Stanton and the mayors of communities along Georgian Bay addressed the issue with the Federal Environment Minister Peter Kent.

The ongoing low water levels in Georgian Bay are now being brought to the attention of Canada’s Federal Environment Minister.

Simcoe North Conservative MP Bruce Stanton along with several mayors from communities along Georgian Bay — including Wasaga Beach Mayor and Simcoe County Warden Cal Paterson — were in Ottawa last week to meet with Peter Kent to suggest ways of reversing the decline of water levels.

Stanton says Georgian Bay is now 25 inches below its long term average and that is bad news for the local economy.

He says people with summer homes can’t use their docks and it is having a negative impact on wet lands and aquatic life.

Stanton says one of the measures being considered to slow down the outflow through the St. Clair River would be installing something like speed bumps in the river to show the outward flow.

But he says that would only be a temporary solution.