Thanks to Tiny Council for taking stand on high water levels

MP fails to stand up for Lake Huron Georgian Bay constituents

Letter to Tiny Township Council from Frank Dunnigan, Tiny Township

On behalf of the Bluewater Community Action Group (BCAG), we congratulate you for passing the two high water resolutions this week.

July 27 2020 Tiny Township Council resolution regarding extreme high water levels

We are out of time. The lake is 4-6 inches higher than last year and if that does not go down by September 30, we can expect unprecedented damage this year. Much worse than the destruction of last year.

We have received an email from the Honourable Chrystia Freeland, Deputy Prime Minister, that she will look into this high water matter. (cc’d)

IJC webinar a joke

The recent IJC water levels webinar could best be described as a joke. Most questions and queries were evaded, denied, or blamed solely on climate change.

It was basically a justification for doing nothing even though they have an action plan that took three years to develop (water levels study 1990-93) and has been used in the past.

They did admit sending excess water into Michigan/Huron from December through March. Whether for maintenance reasons or not, this is unconscionable given the damage we already suffered last year.

Exceeding Plan 12 since 2014

Now one IJC staff member has indicated that they have been sending Michigan/Huron water in excess of Plan 2012 since 2014. This bears serious investigation and could be grounds for a class action law suit.

The webinar did not even address the elephant in the room: that the IJC and US Army Corps of Engineers have no idea how much water is being conveyed through the St Clair River. High water has plugged the St Clair River. (see illustration) This is a long term problem that must be addressed.

Unfortunately, our local MP (Bruce Stanton) is towing the IJC line instead of demanding some relief, any relief, for his constituents. Since the Conservative Party touts themselves as fiscally responsible, it is surprising that they are doing nothing about the billions of dollars of property damage and devastation of commercial interests on Lake Huron Georgian Bay. This will be remembered when the next election rolls around.

FOOTNOTE: OPG continues to dump record amounts of water into Lake Superior that then gets dumped into Lake Huron.