Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York has taken a different tack. Last year New York sued the International Joint Commission to compensate the state for flood damages along Lake Ontario. “They have failed to manage the lake level — period,” he complained. “End of story.” New York wants more water released from the lake, but that would threaten waterlogged communities downstream in Quebec.
Quebec and New York are taking starkly different approaches to the flooding problems. Quebec officials have encouraged flooded property owners to take buyouts, to break the cycle of flood-bailout-rebuild, repeat. New Jersey responded similarly after Hurricane Sandy. But New York has encouraged Lake Ontario property owners to armor their shorelines and hunker down. “What the governor didn’t talk about, but should have,” wrote David Andreatta, a former reporter and columnist at The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, “is a wholesale government buyout of flood-prone properties.”
The relentless high water is bound to bring more strife this year even as officials along the Great Lakes continue to promote climate adaptation strategies and resiliency. Armoring the shoreline is one form of adaptation. Property buyouts are another. History will show which strategy is most effective over time. What’s clear is that some people have built too close to the water’s edge. Their property was fine during low water, and they managed to hang on during the record high water of the 1980s, but today’s weather patterns have brought panic.
The devastation has been remarkably widespread, with properties sliding into the lakes from one end of the expansive watershed to the other. In this new era of extremes, property owners, taxpayers — and the officials they elect — will need to take a serious look at their lakefronts and decide whether armoring up is a wise investment, or a Sisyphean venture.
“Armoring our way out of this is not a good long-term solution,” warns Todd Ambs, the assistant deputy secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. “The history of these Great Lakes has shown that, in the end, we can’t out-engineer Mother Nature.”
The numerous “for sale” signs posted along the south shore of Lake Ontario this year suggest that many have decided to stop fighting. Others will continue to lie awake at night, listening as the waves pound away at their property, wondering how long the high water will last — and whether they have the stomach to keep fighting a great lake.
Peter Annin directs the Mary Griggs Burke Center for Freshwater Innovation at Northland College in Ashland, Wis., and is the author of “The Great Lakes Water Wars.”
The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.
Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram.
