Article on low water in the Great Lakes

[Dave S]

I know we have a lot of CSR members who are boaters on the great lakes so I thought you might be interested in this article.


Dave




http://www.tradeonlytoday.com/home/522390-low-water-in-great-lakes-hampers-boaters-marinas

After a 12-month stretch of less-than-normal rain and snow, the bodies of Lake St. Clair and each of the Great Lakes are roughly a foot or more below their historical averages for this time of year, with forecasts of record lows in the coming months.
The levels have been down throughout the spring and summer, and now the lakes are beginning to see their seasonal decline — effectively making a bad situation worse. As a result, marinas that normally have no trouble getting boats in and out of the water are finding there isn't enough depth to do the job, according to an article in The Detroit News.
"This is the time of year when we typically see the sources of water leading to the lakes dry up," Keith Kompoltowicz, chief of watershed hydrology for the Detroit district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, told the paper. "The rivers and streams that feed the lakes are at their lowest levels. And evaporation starts pulling the water from lakes in larger amounts than what runoff and precipitation can put back."
In other words, low waters drop lower.
Nick DiSalvio said he saw what was coming and decided not to wait for the worst. DiSalvio, 60, has a classic C&C sailboat that he docks in Harrison Township and found last week that it was getting close to being trapped in shallow water.
"I've never seen the Clinton River down this much, and I've been sailing out here for many, many years," DiSalvio told the paper. "I had to pull my boat already. I usually keep sailing up until right around Thanksgiving. So I'm losing about a month of sailing time this year."
As of Wednesday, Lake Superior measured 600.69 feet above sea level — roughly 17 inches below its historical average for that day.
Lake Michigan/Huron system stood at 576.58 feet above sea level — almost 28 inches below its historical average.
Lake St. Clair stood at 572.70 feet above sea level — 16.8 inches below its historical average.
Lake Erie stood at 570.18 feet above sea level — 11 inches below its historical average.
Lake Ontario stood at 243.83 feet above sea level — 11.6 inches below its historical average.

 

[Jackie J V]

The situation is unbelievable! I haven't pulled the boat out of the slip in three weeks. Too many folks have hit something in normally navigatable waters. I'm giving up the ghost and getting pulled next week, a couple of weeks earlier than normal. Hopefully, we get a lot of snow this winter, otherwise I fear what we'll see in the spring.

Paul

 

[HUMPH]

I can relate with water issues. The wonderful politicians in California want to feed water to Southern California from our Delta which will destroy the ecosystem. We will have water but it will be brackish to salty which will destroy the Delta as we know it. Our boat club donates to several organizations that fight this and also show up to events to help support shutting down this ridiculous canal. They can get their water throu desalinization plants and the Chinese of all people have offered to show us here in the USA how do do this more efficiently. The canal will cost billions to the taxpayers and they already have one canal that has been ruining our treasure for many years. Off of soapbox now but check out the trailer for a movie that was made this year to get the message out.

http://overtroubledwaters.org/

 

[DaFish]

Accoring to the Corps of Engineers, Lake Michigan has ties the lowest water level record that was set in 1964, and is expected to continue to fall through the winter months, as it normally does. We were in Door County (thumb up off of the Northeast corner of Wisconsin - filled with boats and tourists) and there are many docks that are yards from any water. The marina that we are at has only 1/2 of the docks to use - the rest are either on the bottom or only have a foot of water in them. Saw a handful of sailboats get stuck yesterday as they were trying to get to the lift-out well.

We may be floating and boating in a work rack if the water does not come up some in the spring.

 

[Molson]

The situation is unbelievable! I haven't pulled the boat out of the slip in three weeks. Too many folks have hit something in normally navigatable waters. I'm giving up the ghost and getting pulled next week, a couple of weeks earlier than normal. Hopefully, we get a lot of snow this winter, otherwise I fear what we'll see in the spring.

Paul

Paul, I'm at Bay Moorings and they had to move me to another slip as I was sitting on bottom. Big Dog is at 2 feet right now and candleman shoal is a beach.

 

[kohrah]

While i realize low water is an issue, over the past few decades my family has watched the water levels of lake ontario rise to the point in the 70's a breakwall had to be put in to stop erosion. Now the water level over the past 5-10 years has been high enough it has eroded around the breakwall.

I have pictures starting in 1950 right up until last week showing the water level through the years and the steady rise.

Now heres a thought. Dredge the harbors (not sure about anyone elses local) but i know olcott and golden hill havent been done in YEARS. And why? Because they didnt need too because the water levels were actually too high.

*steps off soap box* im better now.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2

 

[LTD.330]

Dredging all of the harbors on the Michigan and Erie isn't really practical. Does the water level in Lake Ontario fluctuate much?

On the western end of Lake Erie the difference between the high water of 2011 and the low water of 2012 is over four feet. With a surface area just under 10,000 square miles there is a significant amount of water missing.

 

[Woody]

I recently read that Erie could lose 36" due to evaporation alone if inlets and outlets were blocked. Throw in less precipitation and ice cover in the winter and maybe that accounts for it. Global warming effects?