Published: March 29, 2009 11:47 pm      

ICE BOOM: Amateur scientist says barrier hurts river

As far as Joseph Barrett is concerned, the ice boom put in place on Lake Erie every year isn’t just holding back the ice, it’s holding back the development of the Niagara River.

Barrett, a serious fisherman and amateur scientist, has spent more than a decade striving to prove environmental degradation at the mouth of the lake and along the Niagara River is the result of inhibited ice flow. The New York Power Authority’s massive ice boom at the mouth of the river, he says, keeps tons of nutrient-laden ice from traveling through to Lake Ontario each year — and to the thousands of tiny ecosystems along the way.

“He’s raised an entirely new theory on the river which scientists haven’t raised in the past,” said Julie O’Neill, executive director of the Buffalo/Niagara Riverkeeper.

In fact, the 50 years the boom has been in place may actually have set the table for science to learn more about how ice floes contribute to the environment. Because studies have not been done, however, most are left to guess what would happen to marinas, private docks, homes and other riverfront property in the face of a natural ice floe.

O’Neill said the group is willing to talk to such scientists if they can secure the funding — a common response by those whose interest has been piqued — but that a lot of research still needs to be done in order to answer the first two questions: What ecological impact the boom has and, if there are negative consequences, what can be done about them?

“There’s always an ecological consequence,” O’Neill said. “There just isn’t research on the effect of the boom on sedimentation patterns.”

According to Barrett’s research, erosion partially accounts for Strawberry Island’s rapid decrease from about 100 acres to just 3 over the last several decades. He says it can be laid to inhibited ice, which he said would otherwise plow sediment back against its banks over time.

Though it’s important to note that more than a century’s worth of digging, soil replacement and other engineering have all come into play on the island that has a storied past.

Elsewhere along the banks of the West River, trees are falling into the water in the absence of any shoreline. Barrett again claims scouring of the river floor by the ice would plow sandy material up against the banks, providing a buffer between the now exposed roots and swift current.

“If you didn’t know what it was supposed to look like, you’d think you were in the swamps of Louisiana but these trees aren’t meant to germinate in the water. These are regular deciduous trees,” he said, noting he desires only that his claims be offered a chance for scrutiny by his peers.

Barrett also points to a gradual broadening of the river floor in the absence of mechanical weathering by the ice.

Then there’s the slime.

Detritus, he said it’s called, the stuff that in aerial photographs highlights the Queen City’s lake with a rim of green. Barrett said it’s just one more consequence of holding back the ice, leading to the formation of botulism he believes is responsible for about 9,000 fish that washed up dead or dying on Woodlawn Beach recently.

Riverkeeper’s O’Neill calls it “rock-snot,” an invasive species, accounts for the color more than anything else, but said if you take the leap to say Barrett’s theory is correct — if the studies are done — inhibiting the cycle could allow the material to stagnate, adding to the general detritus.

“We want our river back. We don’t want to deal with botulism outbreaks anymore, we don’t want Strawberry Island to disappear,” Barrett said.