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Sunday, July 26, 2009
Environment - Great Lakes losing even more water via St. Clair River
Although concern has been focused on withdrawals of water from the Great Lakes by adjacent states, the real conern may be the fact that the Great Lakes continue to lose massive amounts of fresh water to the Atlantic Ocean. This from a report today in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, by Dan Egan. The report begins:
A U.S. and Canadian study exploring recent lower water levels on Lakes Michigan and Huron has dramatically miscalculated the amount of water the lakes have lost due to erosion on the St. Clair River, a new report says.The new report found that the water loss was more than nine inches - more than double the four inches estimated by a study released in the spring by the International Joint Commission. That nine inches is in addition to the 16 inches that previous St. Clair dredging and riverbed mining have already cost the lakes.
The report was launched presumably to substantiate the commission study on what is happening on the river north of Detroit that is the main outflow for Lakes Michigan and Huron, which is one body of water connected at the Straits of Mackinac. It did the opposite.
The dispute over what is happening comes at a time when interest in the health of the Great Lakes is high, and the Obama administration has made the freshwater system's health a national priority.
Nine inches escaping out the river, tumbling over Niagara Falls and ultimately spilling into the Atlantic Ocean is not an insignificant amount of water. For comparison, Chicago reversed its namesake river a century ago so it flows out of Lake Michigan instead of into it. It now takes from the lake about 2.1 billion gallons a day. That has dropped Michigan-Huron's long-term average level by about two inches.
The International Joint Commission study was released on May 1. Two weeks before the release, its authors received what has come to be known as the "Baird Report" challenging their findings.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on July 26, 2009 01:14 PM
Posted to Environment