Report - Summary of 2017 Great Lakes Basin Conditions and Water Level Impacts to Support Ongoing Regulation Plan Evaluation
This is a special report of the International Joint Commission’s (IJC) Great Lakes – St Lawrence River Adaptive Management (GLAM) Committee covering the hydroclimate, flows and water level conditions, as well as their impacts on multiple interests, experienced in 2017 throughout the Great Lakes-St Lawrence River system. The focus is on the extraordinary conditions caused by record rainfall, runoff and the resulting high water levels on Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River in 2017. The information gathered for the 2017 event will be used to support the primary objective of the GLAM Committee: to evaluate the regulation of outflows from Lake Superior and Lake Ontario, and the effects of this regulation on interests throughout the system. This on-going evaluation will help the IJC to better regulate water releases from Lake Ontario and Lake Superior and the information compiled for this report will be used over time to adaptively manage and improve the rules governing those releases.