People who live along the Lake Ontario shoreline in the Rochester area are nervously watching lake levels.
The level of Lake Ontario currently is about a foot above its long term historic average, and while high, it’s not all that unusual.
That’s according to Bryce Carmichael, he is the U.S. Secretary of the International Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence River Board which helps manage lake levels.
One complicating factor is recent flooding downstream, near Montreal. To help alleviate that situation, the river board has not been able to let out as much water from Lake Ontario through the Moses Saunders dam as it might normally would.
Carmichael says recent rains could also be a factor with this situation.
“We do expect that to impact the lake levels and continue the rise, but I’d also like to note that this is not totally out of the realm of normal conditions for this time of year; we always see rising water levels on the lake during the spring,” Carmichael said.
Some local town officials have already talked about getting sand bags ready in case we see any flooding along the lakeshore.
There was severe flooding two years ago in that area, but at this point, Carmichael says it’s hard to say where levels will be in the next month or so.
Copyright 2019 WXXI News
