St. Clair River excused in L. Huron water woes

[Spiel]

St. Clair River excused in L. Huron water woes

But all Great Lakes remain below average levels

Manitoulin.ca

 

 

The International Joint Commission (IJC), a quasi-judicial agency that oversees regulation of Great Lakes levels, said on Thursday that video images from the river's depths indicate that, contrary to claims of significant erosion, the bottom remains "fully armoured" with a layer of rocks.

 

"On a preliminary basis, we're finding that ongoing erosion does not appear to be a cause of low water levels," IJC spokesman John Nevin said during a news conference in Toronto.

 

The Georgian Bay Association (GBA), which represents cottagers along the eastern shore of Lake Huron, has argued that dredging and scouring of the shipping channel at the lake's exit near Sarnia has resulted in a greater volume of water escaping the Huron-Michigan system. A study undertaken on behalf of the GBA in 2005 by a firm of hydrological engineers supported this position, and more recent investigations undertaken by the cottagers' group suggest the water loss through the St. Clair may be even greater than first estimated-as much as 10 billion litres per day.

 

The IJC, which launched a five-year study of the upper lakes last spring, admits that more research needs to be done before erosion of the St. Clair channel can be entirely ruled out as a factor in the decline of Lake Huron's water level.

 

Ted Yuzyk, co-chair of the IJC study group, told reporters that other measurements still need to be taken, and no firm conclusions have been reached. It's possible, the group allowed, that more substrate once overlaid the river's present padding.

 

But the fact that rocks exist at this level indicates that the riverbed remains generally intact, and is not likely the culprit in a decline of Lake Huron's water level, in the estimate of IJC scientists.

 

Mary Muter, chair of the GBA's environment committee, feels it's much too early to discard the theory, based on the research of a reputable hydrological firm, that her group has posited. "I think this is premature," she told the Globe and Mail last week.

 

Her association blames dredging conducted in 1962 for an increased outflow from Lake Huron. That dredging, done by the US Army Corps of Engineers, was supposed to be accompanied by protection against erosion, but this work, the GBA contends, was never carried out because of high water on the lakes in the 1970s and 1980s.

 

Lake levels, of course, are anything but high now. Lake Superior reached a record low earlier this fall, falling 10 centimetres below its previous nadir, set in 1926. And Lake Huron, while still above its all-time low, remains well below its average.

 

According to the October edition of Level News, a monthly bulletin provided by Environment Canada, "the level of Lakes Michigan-Huron began October at a level 59 centimetres below average and 10 centimetres lower than last year. Levels on Michigan-Huron have been consistently below average since January of 1999, almost as long as those on Superior."

 

However, the Lake Huron-Michigan basin "received relatively more rainfall than the Lake Superior basin and levels of Michigan-Huron are still about 17 centimetres above the record low for this time of year, which was set in 1964," the bulletin points out.

 

Superior, for its part, benefited from a spate of rainfall in October and has gone way up in recent weeks, with the big lake now closer to normal water levels than it is to record low levels. As of this month, the lake is within a foot of its norm.

 

As of Sunday, the level of Lake Huron stood at 175.83 metres, putting it 18 centimetres above its record low, but a full 1.5 metres below the high set in 1986. Compared to its long-term average, the lake remained undernourished by more than half a metre.

 

In its water level bulletin for October, Environment Canada indicates that Lakes Huron and Michigan are "forecast to continue their seasonal decline, and remain below average, for the next several months."

[Garyv]

The real problem here is no one wants the truth told, their all just looking for an excuses....well try these. Not enough snow and rain, higher temperatures, inland municipalities drawing ever more water and further more municipalities running new pipelines to their area. Drain off by the US Army corp of engineers to bolster levels on the Mississippi and divert water to other "in need" areas. Why list anymore...no one will believe the truth...it's like the x files "Trust No One" I live on Huron and the diminishing levels on our part of the Great Lakes system has been /is devastating.