As a newly appointed member of the International Lake Ontario and St. Lawrence River Board, Supervisor Reilich has promised to advocate on behalf of the shoreline community and to contribute to better management of water outflow and increased accountability for the IJC.
Within weeks of IJC Plan 2014 being implemented, the first flooding event occurred. The severity of the first flooding event of 2017 has only increased in 2019. Shoreline residents and businesses have sustained hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. It is unfair that New York taxpayers should be burdened with the cost.
The Department of Environmental Conservation has been directed to file a lawsuit against the IJC in order for the State to be compensated for the destruction the mismanagement has caused. This legal action comes in response to the IJC’s failure to maintain the lake level.
“Lake Ontario is too economically and environmentally vital to our communities to ignore this devastating flooding and lack of accountability” said Supervisor Reilich. “Thanks to the Governor’s support, we will fight every day to make the case for change and ensure we are protected from rising water in 2020 and for decades to come”.