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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuron Expositor, 2016-04-13, Page 1212 Huron Expositor • Wednesday, April 13, 2016 Huron/Georgian Bay at 1998 levels and rising Scott Dunn Postmedia Network OWEN SOUND - If the lakes look higher, they are. Georgian Bay and Lake Huron are 32 centimetres about the longterm average for this time of year and 13 cm higher than this time last year, lake level expert Frank Seglenieks said Wednesday. Levels are the highest for this time of year in those Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance 41. FP IA Community Forums Ittk 19e6 I'I Tl1 1-1 EAU H('.Af ALL] ANCE your voice YOUR HPHA Your Voice 1 Your HPHA Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance Holding Community Forums to Help Guide Strategic Planning The Board of Directors of the Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance (HPHA) is pleased to announce that the HPHA will be hosting a series of community forums for residents to provide input into the organization's strategic planning process. "It is important that our strategic planning process is open and inclusive," stated Mary Atkinson, Chair of the Board of Directors. "We are seeking input from our community members to help create a shared vision on how we will continue to provide high quality care while improving the experience of our patients, their families and our healthcare team." The new strategic plan will provide a roadmap for HPHA's four hospital sites through the year 2020 and include strategies to build upon a number of significant changes that are occurring at the healthcare system level. Any resident with an interest in the future growth and development of the HPHA is welcome to attend. Community Forum Dates & Locations Please note all forums will take place from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm. Wednesday, April 27, 2016 Clinton Public Hospital — Conference Room, 2nd Floor Monday, May 2, 2016 Seaforth Community Hospital — Conference Room, Lower Level Tuesday, May 3, 2016 St. Marys Memorial Hospital — Meeting Room #2, Lower Level Thursday, May 12, 2016 Stratford General Hospital — Education Rooms A&B, East Building, 1st Floor Interested residents are asked to RSVP at least 48 hours in advance at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/hphaforums, by visiting www.hpha.ca or by calling 1-888-275-1102 Extension 2435. connected bodies of water since 1998, the year which roughly marked the tail end of a period of high lake lev- els. A slow decline in levels followed over the next 15 years, when lake levels were trending below the average. All the Great Lakes have risen over the past two years and are "definitely above average," Seglenieks said. Longterm averages stretch back to measurements taken since 1918. "So we've kind of gone back to the levels ... at the end of the high water periods back in the '90s," Seglenieks said. What stands out for Segle- nieks, a water resources engineer with the boundary water issues unit of Envi- ronment and Climate Change Canada, is the level rose 14 centimetres in Feb- ruary and March in Huron and Georgian Bay, when on average it rises 4 cm in that period. That's mostly because March's spring-like tem- peratures sped up the snowmelt and there was lots of rain too - it was almost twice as wet as the longterm average in the basin, which includes Lake Michigan, Lake Huron and Georgian Bay, Seglenieks said. That may mean less of a rise in the weeks ahead due to spring rain and melting but Seglenieks said even if there were average conditions, the lakes' seasonal rise will add 25 cm more by the middle of summer. And even if spring and summer are dry, local lake levels "will still more than likely be above average." Seglenieks attributes the rising lake levels to weather pattern changes, which brought more precipita- tion. And it's not all attrib- utable to the El Nino effect, which is often cited for extreme weather changes, he said. That effect refers to the influence of warmer waters in the Pacific Ocean off South America on the jet stream and on weather patterns. "Because it's been going on for a couple of years now, the higher water levels have started before the El Nino started. And El Nino peaked last November and it affects more the tempera- ture," as reflected in the mild winter we just experi- enced, he said. But El Nino's influence on precipitation is less one-sided; sometimes it's higher and sometimes it's lower, Seglenieks said. "So it's a general pattern also for the last couple of years of higher precipitation. And that's just something that has happened and maybe in 10, 15 years they might be able to look back and relate it to something else. But right now, that's just the way it is."