Lake level report watered-down, says 'Baykeeper'

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Lake level report watered-down, says 'Baykeeper'

 

 

SHAWN GIILCK / www.theenterprisebulletin.com

 

 

Georgian Baykeeper Mary Muter said she isn't happy with a watered-down report on the Lake Huron- Georgian Bay basin unveiled last week.

 

Muter is the vice-president of the Georgian Bay Association. She also chairs its environmental committee and has been one of the most outspoken advocates of addressing the plunging water levels in Georgian Bay.

 

She attended a meeting in Collingwood last week where the preliminary reports of a bi-national scientific commission studying the lakes were unveiled. Muter said she left the meeting unimpressed and called the report a "disappointment."

 

The International Upper Great Lakes Study, which began in March 2007, is looking into whether dredging in the St. Clair River in 1962 is contributing to low levels in the upper Great Lakes today. Exactly why water levels on the northern Great Lakes have been dropping remains a mystery according to the preliminary findings of the commission.

 

"The public has a right to expect answers after 18 months of working with $16 or $17 million of public funds," she said. "I think what people wanted were a list of what projects were underway, who's been paid and what the results are.

 

"What are the findings? The accountability is just not there."

 

Evaporation during the winter months due to a lack of ice cover is one of the major culprits, the report suggested, rather than the suspicion that lake levels are pouring out through the St. Clair River.

 

Muter scoffed at that. Lake Superior levels are on the rise, she said, noting it's been subject to nearly identical evaporation rates in recent years. That's come from data being tracked by the association.

 

In June, the Georgian Bay area received more rainfall than around Lake Superior, she added.

 

"We've got half the rising water levels of Lake Superior," Muter said. "It all points to a problem in the St. Clair River. To blame it on climate factors is just unacceptable."

 

Muter said the solution lies in the preparation of a "three-dimensional model" of Lake Huron and Georgian Bay, particularly at the St. Clair River, something the current study has resisted doing.

 

She added the current study has also tried to downplay, if not outright ignore, a study commissioned by the association that laid the finger of blame for the dropping levels on the depth of a shipping channel in the St. Clair River.

 

"We knew from those findings that a full three-dimensional model is needed,"Muter said. "But we also knew that it would cost $400,000 to $500,000, not the $1 or $2 million they're trying to tell us that it would cost.

 

"Their excuses just don't stand up at all."

 

Muter said she didn't expect better results from the final report due next year.

 

"They've had advice from other

 

scientists that aren't working on the study that they need to undertake three-dimensional modelling. It's just not adequate work that they are doing."

 

Muter said the association has been contacted by people in the Collingwood area asking for the price of making the model, and offering to help pay for it.

 

"I don't think we should have to do that," she said. "I think absolutely that this is work they should be undertaking. I think it would be sad if Canadian citizens had to take over and spend their own money.

 

"I'm not saying that's what we're going to do. In the end it may be that the politicians might have to push them to do the right thing here.

 

"We're going to stay on this," she said. "We know something needs to be done.

 

"Exactly what or how we don't know yet."

 

 

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