11:15am ET | Rick Dubin, Vice-President, Investigations, IBC
12:15pm ET | Mary Muter, Chair, Great Lakes Section, Sierra Club Ontario

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GUEST – Rick Dubin, Vice-President, Investigations, IBC
TOPIC – IBC releases Top 10 Stolen Vehicles of 2012 list

 

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GUEST – Mary Muter, Chair, Great Lakes Section, Sierra Club Ontario

TOPIC – The decreasing water levels in the great lakes.  We have received numerous calls from our Zoomer audience who live near the Great Lakes.

INFO – The essence of the water levels problem: there is an ecological and economic disaster happening on Georgian Bay.  Wetlands have dried up, dead fish and birds have washed up on the shores and large algal blooms occurred last summer in shallow warm bays with less exchange of open water. The government agencies are swamped with requests for permits to dredge and blast. Banks are reluctant to loan money with no solution in sight to restore water levels. The water levels have now set a record low for the month of December and have been hovering around what the IJC defined as Crisis Conditions for now 13 years.

Yes all the lakes are down due to the warm dry weather over the past year but as of today only Lake Michigan/Huron/Georgian Bay is 75cm or 30 inches below the long-term average while Lake Superior,  Erie and Ontario are only approximately 25cm or 10 inches below their long term average.

Our governments spent $17 million  carrying out a Study under the IJC that came up with a do nothing solution for this long standing problem. The Study found a 5.8% increased outflow through the St Clair River – we think it is more like 10% and when you consider that the Great Lakes contain 20% of the world’s freshwater supply is it wise to allow a leak of 10 billion gallons per day to happen with no viable solution? Watch the video on www.restoreourwater.com