At a special meeting of the Wayne County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, July 30, 2013 at 9:00 a.m. Dr. Frank Sciremammano, a professor of mechanical engineering at Rochester Institute of Technology, spoke of the impacts of implementing PLAN2014, the proposal by the International Joint Commission (IJC) to set new lake levels on Lake Ontario. If PLAN2014 is implemented, it will allow lake levels to consistently fluctuate outside the parameters that have been in place for over 50 years.

The Board of Supervisors is concerned that the IJC has not performed an adequate comprehensive analysis of the impacts of the higher and lower lake levels, especially the economic dislocations and damages that will occur to the built environment on the south shore of Lake Ontario.

The Supervisors adopted a resolution requesting financial assistance from the IJC to perform an independent analysis of the economic dislocations and damages that could occur to such things as municipal infrastructure, shoreline residences, businesses, utilities, docks, recreation sites and similar improvements if PLAN2014 is implemented. The ripple effect of these situations should also be evaluated in terms of job losses, reduced local government operating revenue, lower tax assessment, future economic development opportunities and similar economic conditions. Without this type of information, Wayne County, its municipalities and its citizens, cannot adequately provide the IJC with informed comments on PLAN2014 that are based on empirical data.

Wayne County is also inviting other counties from the Lake Ontario south shore to join them in requesting assistance so that they can perform similar studies.

Dr. Sciremammano is a member of the International St. Lawrence River Board of Control and the International Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence River Study Board of the US-Canadian International Joint Commission. He has specialized in a variety of areas, including hydrology, oceanography, storm water management, and environmental analysis and management.

Assemblyman Oaks looks over the agenda for the special meeting of the Wayne County Board of Supervisors. With him is Ora Rothfus from the Wayne County Planning Department.

Assemblyman Oaks listens to the presentation by Frank Sciremammano, a member of the International Joint Commission's Lake Ontario-St.Lawrence River. With him, to the left, is Wayne County Highway Superintendent Kevin Rooney.

Dr. Frank Sciremammano, a member of the International Joint Commission's Lake Ontario-St.Lawrence River Study Board, speaks to the Wayne County Board of Supervisors on July 30.