Quote:
Originally Posted by Kngkyle
With the lakes being at or near record highs is there anything that can be done to better control water levels? Is the Seaway and Chicago River the only two outlets? Would releasing more water via those two outlets even have an impact, given the size of the lakes?
The Army Corps of Engineers must have some sort of plan if the lakes continue to rise.
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The lake levels ebb and flow. So global warming not only increases the lake levels it decreased them too. Lose lose situation.
Just Let's not dredge the St. Clair river again.
https://www.twincities.com/2007/08/1...s-report-says/
Dredging causes huge Great Lakes water loss, report says
By Pioneer Press |
news@pioneerpress.com
PUBLISHED: August 14, 2007 at 4:49 pm | UPDATED: November 14, 2015 at 7:47 am
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich.—Erosion caused by dredging and other human activities on the St. Clair River is causing Lakes Huron and Michigan to lose 2.5 billion gallons of water daily, says a private Canadian study released Tuesday.
Like a bathtub drain, the artificially deepened river is funneling vast amounts of water into Lake Erie, where it flows east to Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River before eventually being lost to the Atlantic Ocean, the study says.
Sponsored by the Georgian Bay Association, the report acknowledges that drought, evaporation and other factors have contributed to a steep dropoff in water levels on the three upper Great Lakes—Huron, Michigan and Superior—since the late 1990s. Huron and Michigan, considered hydrologically the same lake, are 21 inches below normal and Superior could hit a record low this fall.
“But the erosion in the St. Clair River stands out among these problems as a man-made issue that can be corrected fairly easily and within a relatively short timetable,” the report says.
It suggests covering the eroding areas with rock and installing gates to regulate water flow southward from Lake Huron.
U.S. officials said they were conducting a five-year study that would recommend what to do. The Canadian group and environmentalists in both nations said waiting that long would severely damage wetlands, fish habitat, water quality and Great Lakes cargo shipping.
..
It said dredging, mostly during the 1960s, and other commercial projects on the river’s northern end had caused an 845-million-gallon outflow daily from Lake Huron.
But findings since then show the volume being lost is three times as much—even topping the 2.1 billion gallons pulled from Lake Michigan each day to supply Chicago’s municipal system, said Bill Bialkowski, an engineer who conducted the research.
“We’re seeing drastic, sustained decline in the Michigan-Huron system at the same time that Lake Erie is rising,” Bialkowski said.
... The effects of dredging, gravel mining, shoreline alteration and other activities in the St. Clair River...
The commission has long known that dredging in the St. Clair—and in the Detroit River farther downstream—was affecting water levels in Huron-Michigan, Bevacqua said. But it’s unclear how big a difference they have made, he said.
…
Great Lakes levels have fluctuated on roughly 30-year cycles at least since the mid-1800s. T
.., said massive water losses he had documented were “indicative of water loss independent of naturally occurring fluctuations or those due to
global warming. Research is showing us that this is a persistent, unpredecented water loss.”
The Lake Huron-Michigan water level plummeted 3 feet between 1999 and 2001. Hot, dry weather—which reduced winter ice cover and boosted evaporation—and erosion on the St. Clair River are probably both to blame, said Roger Gauthier, a hydrologist with the Great Lakes Commission.
“You’ve had climate change plus a change in the outlet, a double whammy,” he said.
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