According to the Montreal Gazette plans are being put in place to draw down Lake Ontario in order to keep the St. Lawrence Seaway at required operational levels.

The intervention will only raise water levels to 20.6 metres above sea level, said Yeomans, who is a member of the International St. Lawrence River Board of Control, the Canada-U.S. agency that manages the Seaway.

According to Mr. Peter B. Yeomans, a Canadian member of the The International St. Lawrence River Board of Control, low water levels of this sort, when they happen, usually do so in mid- to late-August – not in the middle of a dry, hot summer. “It would take to two to three weeks of solid rain to raise the levels to what we would like to see,” said Yeomans, on Friday. He added the level of 20.6 metres above sea level is the minimum level for standard Seaway operations and, anything below that level sets up an alarm on the Seaway.