GREECE, N.Y. — Just houses down from each other along the Lake Ontario shoreline, Doug Dobson and John Bolton know a thing or two about high-water levels. 

Both lived along Edgemere drive in Greece in 2017 and 2019, when the area saw major flooding. 

“The last flood in 2019, I had 1,400 sandbags. The first storm that came through knocked my sandbags over and I had to build it stronger,” said Dobson. 

You can still see parts of those sandbags and the damage from that storm along Dobson’s patio. Now, in the years since, whenever water levels reach 247 feet – close to that flooding mark — both Dobson and Bolton start preparing.

“It’s the rapid water barriers. It’s five cages and you just unfold them. When the waves hit, they just bounce back,” said Dobson. 

But Bolton says it doesn’t have to be this way. He still has concerns about some of the regulations when it comes to controlling water levels in the lake. 

“The changes and regulations since have influenced the height of the lake. The weather conditions can dramatically influence the lake if it’s too high to begin with,” said Bolton. 

Created by the International Joint Commission, Plan 2014 manages water levels on Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River. However, homeowners along the lake argue that plan the unfairly favors downstream cities, like Montreal. The IJC says that’s not the case.

“The driver of these high-water events is not regulation plan itself but natural inflows and water supply coming into system,” said Bryce Carmichael, U.S. secretary to the Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence River Board. Its members are appointed by the IJC and the two organizations work together monitoring lake levels. 

“When you see increases on Lake Ontario, that allows for more outflow through the system,” said Carmichael. 

In 2020, the IJC announced a review of Plan 2014. Carmichael says both phases of that review are nearly complete.

“First phase was data collection and setting parameters. Second one is developing models to do analysis and diving into impacts based on data collection,” said Carmichael. 

For homeowners like Dobson and Bolton, they say an updated plan would ease anxieties.

“We need a plan that’s fair to both upstream and downstream,” said Dobson. 

Carmichael expects the revised Plan 2014 to be released by the end of the year.