St. Lawrence water levels could wash away more than $1B | CBC News
Rising water levels in the St. Lawrence Seaway could cost the economy more than $1 billion, shippers and port operators say.
A
new study from the Chamber of Marine Commerce warns that opening the
floodgates further at a dam in Cornwall, Ont., would wash away between
$1 billion and $1.75 billion in revenue for businesses on both sides of
the border.
A board of control recently increased the flow at the
Moses Saunders Dam — the only control point on the St. Lawrence Seaway,
which includes the Great Lakes — to allow 10,400 cubic metres of water
per second out of Lake Ontario.
The exceptionally high rate —
equivalent to about four Olympic swimming pools going over the dam each
second — follows heavy spring snow melt and rains and record water
levels on several Great Lakes.