Lake Levels Theorists Call for Public Support
By Amy Polk

Low water levels in Lakes Huron and Michigan are causing public concern in waterfront communities like the Les Cheneaux Islands, where hundreds of island cottagers need enough depth to reach their island property. Water levels are important to the local commerce, which depends on recreational boating and fishing to help feed the economy. Low water levels touch nearly everyone on the Great Lakes, including freighter operators, who must reduce their loads to reduce their draft.

Great Lakes water levels are on a natural 33-year cycle, reaching its peak in 1986. The levels are predicted to continue dropping through 2016, when they will gradually rise again, but Mary Muter of the Georgian Bay Association in Ontario, who was in Cedarville with Bill Bialkowski of the association to speak about lower water levels, said human causes are exacerbating the natural lows.

"Lakes Michigan and Huron have been at near record lows for the longest period of time ever recorded. Lake Superior is at the lowest it has been since the record was set in 1926," she said. "We believe it's time to start gaining some broad-based support for mounting a campaign to preserve this valuable, irreplaceable resource."

Their August visit to the Les Cheneaux Islands was part of an ongoing effort to inform people about the latest low water level theories and supportive research. While visiting Clark Township to speak at two meetings, they found their point underscored by surprisingly shallow water, less than 1.5 feet, in Cedarville's McKay Bay, where they had planned to moor their float plane. They were forced to moor the plane in a deeper bay, instead. accelerating the outflow of water from the upper and middle Great Lakes through the St. Clair River. So much, in fact, that Lakes Michigan and Huron are experiencing relatively more water loss than the lakes downriver from Lake Huron.

Lake Huron has dropped relative to Lake St. Clair 4.8 feet, which, Ms. Muter said, has nothing to do with natural water level cycles. The only explanation for this is that the lower lakes are gaining the water being lost in the upper lakes, she added.

"Basically this is like the drain hole in your bathtub," Ms. Muter said of the eroded section of the St. Clair River.

Lake Superior's water flows down the St. Marys River into Lakes Michigan and Huron, and they empty into the waters south of those lakes. Some of Lake Michigan's outflow has been diverted into the Chicago River, and Lake Huron's waters empty into the lower lakes via the St. Clair River.

The elevation-related outflow is natural, but erosion is accelerating the outflow beyond what nature intended, Ms. Muter says. The St. Clair River is now twice as deep, 65 feet in some places, as it needs to be to allow Great Lakes freighter shipping. The additional depth, eroded by dredging in the 1960s and river currents, allows more water to drain from Lake Huron at an unnaturally fast rate.

Mr. Bialkowski estimates that Lake Huron is losing 2.5 billion gallons of water a day beyond its natural flow rate because of the erosion, compared to his previous estimate of 845 million gallons a day.

Ms. Muter said the loss is drying up Lake Huron, while Lakes St. Clair and Erie are "getting wetter." She spoke of dramatically dry marshes and wetlands around her native Georgian Bay, once renowned as one of the Great Lakes' best fish spawning habitats.

"In Georgian Bay, we used to take boats to the cottages. Now, because water levels are so low, we can drive to many of them," Ms. Muter said, noting the losses also threaten the bay's fish. "Every centimeter counts when it comes to fish spawning habitat."

The issues Ms. Muter speaks of are familiar to local residents, who ranked "low water levels" as a top concern in a summer poll of what land use issues are most important to the community. Approximately 350 people came to hear Ms. Muter and Mr. Bialkowski speak at a seminar organized by the Les Cheneaux Islands Association and Clark Township Board August 10. Bob Smith of Cedarville also spoke about efforts to fight invasive weeds in Cedarville Bay. Another 200 heard them during a sell-out Islands Association dinner the night before.

When Ms. Muter spoke two years prior, she attracted a crowd of more than 75 people.

"It looks like the interest level went up as the water levels went down," said Mike Mahoney, a Cedarville cottager and Islands Association member who has been the liaison between the two associations' mutual effort to find a solution to low water levels.

As vice president and environmental chair of the Georgian Bay Association of Canada, Ms. Muter is leading the charge to "plug the drain hole" at the bottom of Lake Huron, either by filling the eroded areas of the St. Clair River headwaters, or through a more complex gate or weir system.

She and Mr. Bialkowski see hope in the International Joint Commission's (IJC) Upper Great Lakes Study, which will specifically address physical changes in the St. Clair River and their effect on water levels. The study may also explore remediation options, Ms. Muter said.

The Upper Great Lakes Study area includes lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, and Erie, and their interconnecting channels, including the St. Marys River, St. Clair River, Lake St. Clair, Detroit River, Niagara River, and Niagara Falls.

Study topics include factors that affect water levels, climate change, and assessing impacts on ecosystems and humans. The five-year study will cost $14.6 million, and will be financed by Canada and the United States.

The IJC plans to examine the results of the study to see if Lake Superior outflow should be improved to address the evolving needs of the upper Great Lakes, and whether it needs to update its Order of Approval at the St. Marys River between Sault Ste Marie, Michigan, and Sault Ste Marie, Ontario.

The Les Cheneaux Islands Association supports the Ontariobased Georgian Bay Association and its efforts to remedy falling water levels. Mr. Mahoney is spearheading the Islands Association's involvement with the Georgian Bay Association, and has been a liaison between the two groups since 2004.

The Georgian Bay Association has worked with the Healing Waters Coalition, Great Lakes Think Tank, Ontario's Round Table, and the International Joint Commission, a bi-national organization that manages agreements and helps resolve disputes between the United States and Canada on shared Great Lakes boundary waters like the St. Marys River and Lake Huron.

For information about the GBA's water levels research and search for a solution, contact Mike Mahoney or the Islands Association at LCIA,1158 South Park Avenue, Cedarville, Michigan 49719.

E-mails can be sent to lcia@lescheneaux.com. More Georgian Bay Association information on water levels, and contact information, is available at the GBA's Web site: www.georgianbay. ca.