A marina employee handed me a copy of the October 2009 edition of Great Lakes Boating and pointed out to me your editorial “Dear IJC: Listen to the Voice of Boaters” and article “Boaters Non Grata With
IJC & NOAA.”

Your article points out issues we have been conscious of the last five years. Each late August and early September in the Sandy Pond area of eastern Lake Ontario, we begin to see the bottom of the channels more clearly because of the shallowness of the water. The weeds begin to pop up out of the water and it becomes harder to get up on the plane let alone get out to deeper water. Because of the sand and mud, we are scraping the bottom of our boats.

This problem has definitely shortened our boating season by at least three to five weeks of which I have paid marina docking fees. Even with all the rain this season, it is to the point on this date of September 18 that I am churning up mud to get out of the channel. The water level issue is something that needs to be resolved.

As an avid boater and fisherman, I would like to spend more time on the water in the autumn of the year.

If the water has to be lowered, and why does it have to be lowered, why can’t the process be done in the middle of October instead of late August while boaters and fishing season are still active in this area?

If regulations from a half-century ago can be changed, what do boaters have to do to be heard and enact change? More information needs to come to educate boaters that there is a solution to this problem.

Thank you for your article and
I hope things will improve.
Thomas & Faye Ribble
Binghamton, New York