IJC member agrees lake plan is flawed

File photo by Tom Rivers – This photo was taken in October 2013 from a sailboat on Lake Ontario.

KNOWLESVILLE – One of the members of a binational board charged with managing the water levels in Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River system believes a proposal backed by the majority of the board will result in flooding on the southshore.

Frank Sciremammano, a professor of mechanical engineering at Rochester Institute of Technology, has voiced his concerns about Plan 2014 and what he sees as an unfair burden put on southshore property owners.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea and I’ve been fighting it,” Sciremammano said Wednesday when he was in Orleans County. He has been hired as a consultant to help six southshore counties come out with a dredging and harbor maintenance plan.

Sciremammano said the International Joint Commission, which is tasked with regulating the water levels, should ensure that no one group or geographic area bears a disproportionate loss. The new plan would concentrate damage to the south shore of the lake, he said.

“Quebec said no more damage so the damage and flooding will shift to the southshore,” Sciremammano said.

Orleans and other southshore counties are trying to thwart the plan. It has been approved by the IJC, but needs the backing from both countries.

“Where it goes, no one knows,” Sciremammano said.

For more on the IJC, visit www.ijc.org.