Lake Champlain was 8 feet higher than normal this spring, and the extent of the flooding has alarmed state and provincial officials. Gov. Peter Shumlin and Quebec Premier Jean Charest have asked an international task force to study the cause of the record-breaking flooding of Lake Champlain and the Richelieu River.
Hundreds of Vermont and Quebecois residents experienced flood damage to property last spring and in certain instances had to evacuate. Environmental groups blame global cllimate change for the flooding of the large landlocked lake, which had never before, in recorded history, overrun its banks to such an extent.
Shumlin and Charest wrote a joint letter asking both President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Stephen Harper to study the cause of the flooding this yearand find ways to reduce the impacts of future flooding. They asked the heads of both nations to charge the International Joint Commission, which is responsible for overseeing international boundary waters, to conduct the study.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the state of New York were invited to take part in the task force, but Cuomo hasn’t issued a formal response yet. According to Sue Allen, special aide to Vermont’s governor, Shumlin spoke recently with Cuomo and he was “very interested.”
The Lake Champlain Basin Program will also coordinate a conference with U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D.-Vt., and federal, state and provincial officials to discuss how to prevent future flooding. The conference will most likely happen in November, and experts from across the Champlain region will also be invited to the discussion.
The funding for the task force will come from the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, which received $3 million in fiscal year 2011. The commission is funded by the Senate Foreign Operations Subcommittee, chaired by Sen. Leahy.
Shumlin also announced there will be an internal study with members of his administration to discuss this year’s flooding and to determine how, from a Vermont standpoint, it can be more prepared for the future.
“The question is ‘what can we learn?’” Shumlin said. “We had some environmental impacts we would never want to see again.”
Secretary of the Agency of Natural Resources Deb Markowitz said Vermont’s precipitation levels have increased over the years, and she said the state should expect wetter spring weather patterns in the future.
“Although no one can say for certain that this past year’s floods were caused directly by a changing climate, we do know that we’ve seen heavier precipitation over the years,” Markowitz said. “We’re going to continue to see more participation, and we can expect that, and we need to be prepared.”
Conservation Law Foundation Lakekeeper Louis Porter said the heavy rains and flooding cannot be directly attributed to climate change.
Though scientists are hesitant to tie unusual weather around the world to climate change, the proof, according to Porter, is self-evident. “It’s in droughts, it’s in extreme wildfire offense, it’s in too much rain and flooding and no ice in the lakes. All of it in the Lake Champlain Basin has an eerie resemblance to what’s been predicted by the Nature Conversancy and the Union of Concerned Scientists,” Porter said.
Markowitz said slowing the water down would help prevent future flooding. She said urban and rural drainage system development would keep excess water off impermeable surfaces like pavement and rooftops and prevent it from loading tributaries that feed into the lake with too much water.
Digging winding ditches for tributaries to prevent a direct rush into the lake would allow more time for water to absorb into the ground. Containment pools could be built in urban areas to help catch runoff, while modernizing wastewater treatment centers would alleviate pollution into the rivers, streams and the lake.
Markowitz said the significant environmental impact that occurred with the flooding is a serious matter. An unprecedented amount of sediment was washed into the lake from tributaries and rivers, carrying with it a pollutant – phosphorous — that has caused blue-green algae to “bloom” or grow on the lake.
When the phosphorus detaches itself from sediment, it settles on the bottom of the lake. When the lake area has extended periods of warm weather and calm waters, the latent phosphorus is released. The commercial chemical, which is in fertilizers and detergents, helps feed blue-green algae blooms that dominate the available oxygen in the lake and kills off other organisms, while making the water unsuitable for fishing or swimming and, if dense enough, toxic.
In July and August this year, two health warnings issued on the Quebec side of the Missisquoi Bay advised residents not to use the water from the lake.
Markowitz said excavating sediment from the bottom of the lake and putting it elsewhere, also known as ‘dredging,’ would absolutely create problems downstream for the St. Lawrence River. Porter agreed with Markowitz.
“Dredging should be a last resort,” Porter said. “We ought to be preventing sediment from going into the rivers … first and foremost.”
Read more about climate change impacts on the Northeast:
http://www.northeastclimateimpacts.org/pdf/confronting-climate-change-in-the-u-s-northeast.pdf
http://www.nature.org/idc/groups/webcontent/@web/@vermont/documents/document/prd_002936.pdf
