Flooding continues across Durham
CLOCA warns to avoid bluff areas as erosion continues
By Joel Wittnebel/The Oshawa Express
The record high water levels in Lake Ontario have continued, with many parts of Durham Region seeing flooding as the lake continues to surge over its shoreline and eat away its banks.
In Bowmanville, sandbag walls are being constructed along the lake to mitigate the worst of the high water, while the Port Darlington area of Clarington continues to see flooding in the lakefront areas, with many homes having their basements and crawlspaces flooded.
Along the Oshawa shoreline, the city was forced to close portions of Simcoe Street South as the lake surged its banks, completely swallowing the Lakeview Park beach and portions of the adjoining parking lot. At Stone Street Park, many portions of the lakefront park were underwater, including the bike path.
For Perry Sisson, the director of engineering and field operations with the Central Lake Ontario Conservation Authority (CLOCA), things may soon start to go back to normal.
“I think we’re at the crest, the last week or so things have kind of levelled out,” he says of the levels in Lake Ontario, which sit at approxiamtely 75.88 metres above sea level, or about a foot-and-a-half above normal.
Recent flooding has been exacerbated by the extreme amount of rain (about 200 per cent more than normal for the month of May), along with low pressure systems that create a storm surge in Lake Ontario, pushing the water even higher. The addition of southeast winds blowing the water even harder into the shoreline has not helped the situation.
The shoreline has also become increasingly unstable as the water continues to erode the banks at a much quicker pace than normal. In Lakeview Park, several portions have been fenced off and visible damage to fences and ground cover can be seen.
However, it is along the bluffs that the real dangers exist, Sisson says.
“It’s a nice attraction to walk along the lakefront and stand at the top of the bluffs, but you don’t know if that bluff has anything underneath it. It could be completely undermined,” he says.
“We know a lot of the bluff sections along the lake have significant erosion in them. Some of the bluffs are undercut from the waves that are hitting at the bottom of them.”
For that reason, CLOCA is advising residents to steer clear of these areas for their own safety.
While the rain may continue in the coming weeks, some relief may still be seen as the Moses Saunders Dam in Cornwall, which controls the lake levels in Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence Seaway, has started to release more and more water from the lake as the situation has improved with less rain downstream. The flow is controlled by the International Lake Ontario St. Lawrence River Board.
“(The board has) continued to ramp up the outflow rate, so they’re putting it out pretty much at the maximum rate right now,” Sisson says.