Evening star., 1937-09-06
LAKE CHAMPLA|N
AGAIN IN DISPUTE
Some Americans Fear Cana.
dian Project Threatens
Historic Waters.
BY FRANK I. WELLER,


issue again, Is decades after Ethan
Allen thundered at the doors of IT,
conderoga.
Canada and the United States have
agreed on sluiceways in the outflowing
Richelieu River, which would control
the water level of the lake, and some
Americans fear the Canadian project
constitutes threat to their darling
Of the Adirondacks.
Never, they say, shall foreign
though friendly power tamper with
that glacial cradle Of robust deed
and legend.
1t was their tempestous Benedict
Arnold who pitted a grim Colonial
Navy against the formidable British
hotilla. There Ethan Allen and his
Green Mountain boys" called on a
Redcoat garrison to Surrender in
the name of the great Jehovah and
the Continental Congress
There trod the moccasined feet of
James Fenimore Cooper's stalwart
Uncas, last of Mohicans."
In the War of 1912 the Americans
defeated the British there, and after
ward the naval power OF each on
Champlain was limited by treaty to
"one vessel not exceeding 100 tons
burthen and armed with one 18-pound
cannon"
Dam to Be Built.
In 1887 and again in l9O2-7 end
19l4-15 Canada negotiated in vain
with the United States for protection
OF the shallow Richelieu against sea-
sonal floods of Lake Chsmplain water.
Now control dam is to be construct
ed at Freyers Island, just about where
the river starts dropping one foot
mile on Its course to the st. Lawrence
Now some Americans are figura-
lively up in arms because they say the
sluiceWays will lower the lake level.
I'VE are making the lake a Gift to
Canada" rallied John B. Burnham,
valley resident.
Mary B. Cleland. defending family
property gained in 1886, warned:
We have been at war with Canada
In the past, and we may be in times
to come. 1t seems very Short
sighted on the part of the United
States to allow any other power to
tamper with its naural resou1ce ces."
None OF these things will happen,
assured the International Joint Com
mission in public hearings at St.
Adams, Quebec, and at Montreal.
Seventeen miles Of the lake lie in
Canada. The remainder, 130-mile
ribbon OF water varying from one
half to Is miles in width and some
times 300 feet deep, forms the
boundary between New York and
Vermont.
1t has the swift current and the
high and low water marks of a large
river.
Plan Held Desirable.
Agriculture, navigation and recre-
alton interests, said Chairman A. o.
Stanley of the commission, agree that
1t is very desirable that the present
excessive variation in lake levels
of approximately 10 feet should be
materially reduced, that floods should
be prevented by enlarging the
CAduuel capacity OI Ine fIlCQeueu
and accelerating its runoff."
The normal lake level, he assured
Representative Smell, Republican Of
New York, will remain constant.
Smell was concerned lest there be
another experience such as the Lake
of the Woods incident in Ontario.
Thousands of acres of Minnesota farm
and timber land were flooded when a
dam raised the level of the lake, and
a controversy has been pending be-
tween Canada and the United States
since 1888. Likewise, dispute RACES
over the Chicago drainage canal low
ering Lake Michigan. The proposed
st. Lawrence Waterway has been
fought on the theory it would lower
the level of the Great Lakes.
Negotiations started by President
Theodore Roosevelt and concluded by
President Taft provide that neither
country shall raise the water levels
Of the other when operating on bound
ary water. There is no law to prevent
lowering.
Canada's promise, and an American
engineer to be stationed at the Freyers
Island Dam, stand as assurance Lake
Champlain levels will not be reduced
below state of nature"