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When Susan Jillette looks out her kitchen window, she sees a lot of sand and plants where water used to be.
“The river’s really dry – some of my neighbours are even mowing the water plants growing there,” said the artist and Rigaud resident who lives along the shores of the Ottawa River, which flows into Lake of Two Mountains.
Jillette is not alone. Many people living or walking and driving along the Montreal area’s shores have noticed dropping water levels. In Vaudreuil-Dorion, people are using their all-terrain vehicles as dune buggies along the long stretches of sand where water once was.
To offset the low levels in the Montreal region, the International Joint Commission, which manages the water levels of the Great Lakes through a system of locks and hydro dams, started gradually releasing water from Lake Ontario into the Montreal region through a dam at Cornwall, Ont., three weeks ago.
“There’s no question. It’s been very, very low,” IJC spokesperson Greg McGillis said yesterday. Water levels are nearing the end of a natural, 30-year cyclical low, he explained.
A five-year, $17-million study started in April is looking at whether climate change caused by humans will extend that cycle and, if so, for how long, he said.
“The Great Lakes haven’t frozen over in about 10 years,” McGillis noted.
“Warmer water evaporates more quickly and isn’t cooled into rain as often.”
The commission, run jointly by Canada and the United States, released the extra flow so drinking water intake valves around Montreal Island did not get dangerously close to the surface, McGillis said.
He could not say exactly how much has been added.
“It’s a matter of inches,” he said, noting each additional supply dissipates within a day or two.
Even with the extra flow, the Port of Montreal’s website indicated the level there yesterday was 40 centimetres below the standard. Normal depth for the port is 11.3 metres.
Feeding the St. Lawrence River with water from the Great Lakes is not something the IJC likes to boast about.
“Anytime that we release water that’s desperately needed and that’s off (Lake Ontario) and it flows into the (St. Lawrence) river, it’s a problem for everyone else. They say: ‘We need more water, too.’
“This was a specific decision to help Montreal because there were very low supplies from the Ottawa River,” McGillis said.
Levels in Lake of Two Mountains and Lake St. Louis, which connect to the Ottawa River, are the lowest recorded in the last 33 years, when such measurements began, said Roger Dumont, head of the public dams division for the Centre d’expertise hydrique du Québec, which oversees water management in the province.
But similar low water levels in Lake of Two Mountains occurred in 1987, 1995, 2001 and 2002, Dumont added.
It is too early to tell what is to blame for the low levels, he said.
“Part of it is cyclical – and as for other factors, such as a dry summer or global warming, it’s difficult to tell.”
René Héroux, a spokesperson for Environment Canada, said the rain levels recorded at Montreal’s Pierre Elliott Trudeau
International Airport have been 17 per cent lower than last year.
“It’s definitely been a dry, hot summer and early fall,” he said.
Chantal Rouleau, director of the Comité ZIP Jacques Cartier, a Montreal environmental advocacy group, said the low river level she is seeing near her home in the east-end Mercier district raises some long-term issues.
“It threatens biodiversity,” she said, explaining that low water levels allow exotic plant species to proliferate and kill the local flora.
Toxic sediments also could be dredged up if a boat were to scrape the river bed, she said.
Paul-Yvon Valois, owner of the P.A.T. Marina in the east end, said the water levels are definitely the lowest he has seen since 1981, when he started the business.
But like the water level itself, Valois, who is in his 60s, said he has adjusted to the new reality.
“My docks float, so there’s not much of a difference for the boats tied to them.”
aambroziak@thegazette.canwest.com
mharrold@thegazette.canwest.com
WEEKLY MEAN LEVELS AT VARIOUS WATERWAYS Week Ending Average for this Oct. 3, 2007 time of year
Lake Ontario- 74.47 metres 74.68 metres
Lake St. Lawrence at Long Sault 73.31 metres 73.15 metres
Lake St. Louis at Pointe Claire 20.63 metres 21.15 metres
Montreal Harbour at Jetty #1 5.31 metres 6.26 metres
-Actual level at end of week
source: international joint commission
© The Gazette (Montreal) 2007