Director's WayPoints - February 2020
Dear River Partner,

Greetings from a relatively ice-free River. The outflow flow rates still seem to be very high, but the net inflow from Lake Ontario is also high.
31st Annual Winter Environmental Conference a Success
Save the River’s 31st Winter Environmental Conference, held last weekend, was a great success. We had 170 people attending, which is 40 more than our previous record. Attached at the end of this Waypoints is a press release concerning WEC, but I wanted to share a couple of news articles that I thought would interest you about one of our featured speakers.
Dr. Andrew Gronewold, P.E, Associate Professor with the School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS) at the University of Michigan, presented on his research of understanding Great Lakes water level variability. Dr. Gronewold conducts research through a range of hydrological science projects that explore methods for quantifying and communicating uncertainties arising within long-term hydrological monitoring networks and data and incorporating those uncertainties into models and risk-based water resources management decisions. His recent research has focused on monitoring, analyzing, and forecasting the long-term water budget and water levels of the Great Lakes. Dr. Gronewold was joined for a Q&A session by IJC ILOSLRB member Tom Brown.

Dr. Gronewold’s whole presentation can be found at minutes 2:58:54 through 3:41:56 in this video from the conference . You will hear from Dr. Gronewold of the need of a cooperative US and Canadian long range forecasting program that would allow meteorologists and climate scientists to do much more meaningful and accurate weather modeling over the Great Lakes basin. Currently, both countries' forecasts stop at the borders.

Dr. Gronewold’s research has determined that over the last ten years the Great Lakes basin has experienced the highest amount of precipitation on record and is the cause for the current high-water years that we are experiencing on the River and Lake Ontario. He expects that we will see more years of high water due to the continued high levels of precipitation caused by climate change.

View WWNYTV Channel 7 Coverage:


From the Watertown Daily Times:

Delay Aluminum Ingot Shipping

We recently contacted Governor Cuomo’s central New York representative,Colleen Deacon, about early season shipments of aluminum ingots into Port of Oswego. We have not heard back from Ms. Deacon.

"We hear that the major obstacle to having the governor take action on a delayed opening is shipment of aluminum ingots into the Port of Oswego. We understand the importance of keeping that supply chain properly functioning, and propose that a few weeks inventory of ingots could be supplied to the Port by rail as a smart alternative. Rail shipments of aluminum into the Port are currently part of the supply chain"

Save The River will continue to keep pressure on the authorities for a delayed 2020 opening of the Seaway. However, based on everything we hear, I think we should all be making plans for another high water year. There are record amounts of water that have to flow out of the Great Lakes down the River. We will keep you up to date as we get additional information on the water levels.
Thank you for your support of Save The River ,

John Peach 
Save The River Executive Director  
Upper St. Lawrence Riverkeeper
For 42 years Save The River has been the voice for the St. Lawrence. We will always stand to protect the health of the River but we can’t do it without your support.

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