Eastern Ontario tourism operators, shoreline businesses and recreational boaters are watching water levels drop on the St. Lawrence River with trepidation.

Levels on Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River are down about 30 centimetres from the high-water mark experienced in June, when concerns were being raised about soil erosion and docks being submerged after heavy spring rains and extensive snow melt from the winter.

Now, though the amount of water flowing through the Robert Moses Saunders Power Dam in Cornwall has been reduced, the alarm is being raised over fears that a further drop in water levels appears inevitable.

“We always expect a bit of a drop, but our hope is it doesn’t get as bad as last year,” said Mark Janus, co-owner of Caiger’s Resort on the 1000 Islands Parkway near Rockport.

In 2010, after a dry spring and little winter runoff, water levels were so low that even experienced boaters were running aground on unknown shoals that were previously unexposed.

Janus said the situation hasn’t reached that point, but a continuing drawdown of water could spell an early end to the lucrative fall tourist season.

“We struggled last year with low water levels, but we have enough water right now,” Janus said. “I am starting to get concerned because the water is going down.”

A key element of the resort’s business — three boats for scuba diving charters that require four feet of water to operate — will be threatened by a continuing decline.

Janus said divers account for 75% of the resort’s room rentals.

“We could be looking at a lot more losses than just people coming for lunch.”

Figures provided by the International Joint Commission’s board of control, which regulates water levels, show levels at a station near Brockville at 74.9 metres, which is just slightly above average but down significantly from 75.023 metres measured in June when the board allowed a maximum outflow of 8,780 cubic metres per second to pour through the dam at Cornwall.

That flow has been reduced twice since July 2 and is now at 8,080 cubic meters per second.

Tom Hartshorn, president of the International Water Levels Coalition, a group that monitors levels on Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River, said the reduction in flows isn’t likely to maintain current water levels on either body of water.

Hartshorn credited the board for taking some action to restrict outflows, but fears it won’t be enough to salvage the remainder of the tourist season.

“If it would stay at this level, we wouldn’t be barking. However, if I look at the last several years, we know it’s going to go down more.”

Hartshorn said lower water levels will have a widespread impact on the economy on both sides of the border.

“There is a marked effect on all the tourism activities,” he said. “It’s not just recreational boaters who are affected. It’s marinas, shoreline operators, restaurants, hotels and stores that feel it when people stop coming.”

Even large commercial shippers need higher water levels or they will be forced, like last year, to reduce their loads to avoid scraping the river bottom, he noted.

Hartshorn said water levels under the Thousand Islands Bridge between Ivy Lea and Alexandria Bay, N.Y., are nearly 40 centimetres lower than this spring and he sees no sign of a change in the ongoing draw-down.

“If they mirror what they’ve done in recent years, we’re not going to be very happy.”

Hartshorn said members of the coalition in the U.S. and Canada are sending their concerns to the board of control in hopes of addressing the situation before it is too late.

“They can’t replace the water once it goes past Montreal, so we are asking that they trim the outflow.”

Hartshorn argued higher water levels also help fish and wildfowl, and he believes the board of control should strive to remain on the high side of the maximum 1.2-metre variance allowed on Lake Ontario.

“They should be more judicious in releasing water,” he said, noting the board typically maintains the lake levels at the lower end of the 1.2-metre variance.

Levels on Lake Ontario at Kingston currently stand at 74.9 metres, which is just above the average.

Hartshorn acknowledged there are competing interests arguing against higher water levels, including the Port of Montreal, which needs to keep freighters afloat, and developers on the south shore of Lake Ontario near Rochester and Oswego, who are intent on building on a flood plain, but there are other good reasons to maintain higher water levels on Lake Ontario, he contends.

He said extra water may be needed late in the summer to increase power-generating capacity at the Cornwall dam in case of an emergency power outage.

Such a situation occurred during a broad power outage about 10 years ago and there was adequate water in the lake to increase the flow at the Saunders dam to increase power generation, he said.

Hartshorn said the board remains tied to an outdated regulation established in 1958 that limits its ability to take local con-c erns into account, but Gail Faveri, a professional engineer who is secretary of the water control board, said considerable flexibility has already been exhibited this year.

Initially, outflows were higher than the plan allows to help eliminate excess water built up during the spring, she said, and just this week the outflow at the Cornwall dam was reduced after water levels on Lake St. Lawrence between Iroquois and the power dam reached their lowest state since 1998, she said.

“We have been deviating from the plan quite a bit.”

Paul Webb, former owner of Iroquois Marine Services and a member of the water levels coalition, believes the control board continues to miss opportunities to be flexible.

“They maximize the outflow too early,” said Webb. “They should be more cautious, instead of letting the water out now in anticipation that there’s going to be enough rain in the fall to replace it.

“They should save a little and increase the flow in the fall if necessary.”

Like others, Webb said current water levels are fine, but he is worried that a awdown in August will deplete the system.

Another coalition member, Bud Andress of Lansdowne, who is also vice-president of the international Save the River organization, said it is important to keep the situation in perspective.

Before the St. Lawrence Seaway was built, it was not unusual for the river to be even lower than in recent years.

“We are not the master of the system. It still depends on the weather,” Andress said.

The difference now is there are many more stakeholders competing for their interests.

Before the seaway was built, Andress said, people built long docks off their waterfront property in anticipation of water levels dropping below what is considered worrisome today.

Similarly, he remembers visiting the Admiralty Islands near Gananoque and walking on a rock shelf around the islands when the water levels were at lower levels than are ever seen anymore.

“It was so much lower, you could walk around the islands on a rock shelf without even touching vegetation,” he said.