Managing Water Levels and Flows for Improved Economical, Environmental, and Ecological Benefits in Lake Ontario and in the St. Lawrence River

A five-year $20,000,000 study of how Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River can be better managed has just come to a conclusion. Three alternative operating policies that balance competing objectives in different ways have been presented to the International Joint Commission for their consideration. After due public discussion, the IJC will be selecting one (or none) of those three to implement, with the primary purpose of improving the environmental and ecological state or quality of the basin over what it is now. At the same time the policy has to meet other objectives such as those related to recreational and commercial boating and navigation, hydropower, shoreline protection, water supply reliability, and flood protection. This paper and talk summarizes the manner in which this joint Canadian and US study arrived at economic, environmental and ecological indicators whose values were functions of what can be managed, namely lake and river levels and river flows. Also of interest is the political process of plan selection and implementation, and the institutional impact of adapting a new policy for managing water in the basin.