Lake levels report weighs Great Lakes basin’s glacial legacy

By Jeff Gillies, jeffgillies@gmail.com
Great Lakes Echo
June 8, 2009

Even today the Great Lakes landscape is bouncing back from the glaciers that retreated 10,000 years ago. A key question researchers recently sought to answer is whether that has anything to do with fluctuating lake levels. Here’s how it might work: The massive ice sheets pushed down the earth’s crust like a person pressing on a basketball, said Grahame Larson, professor of geology at Michigan State University. And when the ice is gone, the relatively pliable layer under the Earth’s rocky crust rebounds, though more slowly than the surface of a basketball. “When you stop pushing on the basketball, the basketball surface pops right back up,” Larson said.

Climate variation main cause in Huron and Michigan’s dropping levels, report says

By Allison Bush, bushalli@msu.edu
Great Lakes Echo
June 5, 2009

Some shoreline cottage owners blame dredging and other human-caused activities for eroding the St. Clair River and lowering Lake Huron. But experts with the International Joint Commission cite variations in climate as the main cause for dropping lake levels in recent years. Although erosion from both human and natural causes contributed to the declining water levels in lakes Michigan and Huron, it has only played a small part in recent years, said Frank Quinn, a participant in the IJC study. “The change in (the lake levels) was maybe 50 centimeters from the 1990s to the present, and my finding was that between five and seven centimeters was due to erosion,” said Quinn, a former senior research hydrologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory.

In a jam: Report points to ’84 ice pileup for St. Clair River scouring

By Sarah Coefield, coefield@msu.edu
Great Lakes Echo
June 4, 2009

An ice jam that stalled the St. Clair River for nearly a month in 1984 may have caused Lake Huron to drain faster in subsequent years. Lake Huron water levels have been dropping the past 40 to 50 years. That prompted a Canadian group of Georgian Bay cottage associations, upset that the low water threatened wetlands and diminished waterfronts, to search out the cause. Consultants for the Georgian Bay Association in 2004 identified the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ dredging of the St.

Officials say natural causes dropped Lake Huron and Michigan levels; homeowners don’t buy it

By Allison Bush, bushalli@msu.edu
Great Lakes Echo
June 3, 2009

When the Great Lakes are high, shoreline houses risk erosion that could tumble them into the water. When they are low, more structures are exposed to wind damage, boaters can’t pull up to docks and ships can’t transport as much cargo. And lately, both things have happened at the same time, puzzling scientists and frustrating property owners. Since the late 1990s, the average water levels of lakes Michigan and Huron have dropped, said Frank Quinn, a former research hydrologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory. At the same time the average water level of Lake Erie has risen.

“The lake levels normally oscillate together,” Quinn said.

Regulation of Great Lakes’ water levels possible, experts debate effects

By Allison Bush, bushalli@msu.edu
Great Lakes Echo
June 9, 2009

Imagine turbines at the bottom of the St. Clair River that can control the height of the water on Lake Huron. What’s more, they can generate electricity. Sound farfetched? They’re not, according to Craig Stow, a physical research scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory.

Public meeting about Great Lakes levels

(ON) SooToday.com – The International Upper Great Lakes Study (IUGLS) has announced that, using web-conferencing technology, seven public meetings will be held on June 9 and 11 in communities around the Great Lakes Basin to solicit comments and answer questions on the draft report Impacts on Upper Great Lakes Water Levels: St. Clair River.For the past two years, more than 100 Canadian and U.S. scientists and engineers have worked together to address important questions, posed by the International Joint Commission, regarding the St. Clair River system that connects Lake Michigan-Huron to Lake Erie. More

Great Lakes water experts want to hear from Bay City

(MI) Bay City Times – Bay City will be part of an international meeting on Great Lakes water levels on June 11.  The public meeting is scheduled from 7-9 p.m. at the Delta College Planetarium and Learning Center, 100 Center Ave. in downtown Bay City. The International Upper Great Lakes Study meeting will be linked via a live video feed to other meetings in Traverse City; Superior, Wis.; and Midland, Ontario. More

Disappearing beaches: Rising lake levels boon for boaters, bust for baskers

(MI) The Holland Sentinel – Water levels in Lake Macatawa and Lake Michigan have risen 12 inches since May 2008, making life easier for local boaters yet tougher for those with lakefront property or wanting beach blanket space. Anchorage Marina Manager Cary Masters said after near-record lows just a few years ago, he’s excited to see water levels rebounding. He said the rise has saved his Park Township marina a significant amount of money.

Landmark Wisconsin diversion of Great Lakes water is both praised and blasted

By Sarah Coefield, coefield@msu.edu
Great Lakes Echo
May 22, 2009
A Great Lakes water diversion to replace a Wisconsin city’s radium-contaminated wells has been both hailed as a responsible application of new water use regulations and blasted as unwarranted and precipitous. New Berlin is the first city with residents outside of the Great Lakes basin to receive water under the latest version of the Great Lakes Compact, a federal agreement approved by bordering states and ratified by Congress in 2008. The diversion was approved Thursday by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Because New Berlin is both inside and outside of the basin — the land that drains to the Great Lakes – Wisconsin had sole discretion in approving the city’s application.  Cities completely outside the basin must receive approval from all the Great Lakes states. Under Wisconsin’s conservation standards, New Berlin will return all the water it withdraws from Lake Michigan and also contribute local water to the lake.  That net gain for Lake Michigan represents a successful application of the Great Lakes Compact, Andy Buchsbaum, executive director of the National Wildlife Federation’s Great Lakes region, said Friday.

Conflicting report on dredging remains secret

(WI) Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – The public will have a chance to comment Wednesday night on a controversial study that clears the Army Corps of Engineers of allegations that a botched dredging job in the 1960s permanently lowered Lakes Michigan and Huron. But what people attending the hearing in Evanston, Ill., won’t get to see is a second report that contradicts the new study’s findings. The reason: That report – essentially a critique requested and paid for by the producers of the new study – is still being reviewed, according to study spokesman John Nevin. More