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Effects of low water are demonstrated by this scene from Georgian Bay. (Sierra Club Ontario photo.)

FIX LOW WATER! Group Formed in Bay City Mounts Restoration Campaign

St. Clair River Seen as Culprit; Activist Effort Beginning to Snowball

July 18, 2013       Leave a Comment
By: Dave Rogers

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A new Canada -- U.S. organization founded this year in Bay City has a message to Governments: Fix Low Water Levels On Lakes Michigan-Huron!

Restore Our Water International Inc., incorporated on January 28, 2013 is urging Federal, State and Provincial governments to act immediately to resolve the crisis of low water levels in Lakes Michigan-Huron, including Georgian Bay.

The inaugural meeting of Restore Our Water International (ROW) was held February 23, 2013 at the County Building in Bay City, Michigan. That action followed a meeting the previous day between members of SOS (Save Our Shoreline) and Saginaw Bay WIN/Saginaw Bay Coastal Initiative (SBCI) at the Delta College Planetarium.

Communities and activists in Michigan and Ontario are coordinating with concerned residents to back requests to governments for action on the low water problem. The media is playing a part in spreading the word, also, according to AuGres Bill who notes that Roger Gauthier of ROW is out with a YouTube explanation of low water: the St. Clair River near Detroit is draining the upper lakes into Lake Erie.

What's Draining the Great Lakes? - YouTube#at=224

State Sen. Mike Green, R-Mayville, kept the ball rolling at a town hall meeting Mar. 18 at the DoubleTree Hotel featuring Jon W. Allan, head of the Michigan Office of the Great Lakes.

"Low water levels affect all of us, our natural resources, the economy and our way of life," said Green. "The causes and effects of these low water levels and ways to responsibly deal with them were the focus of the town hall with Jon W. Allan, one of the strongest advocates for the Great Lakes in the country."

Allan is a well-known leader on environmental and natural resources policy. He currently also serves as head of the Michigan delegation for the Great Lakes Commission and as a member of the Great Lakes Executive Committee for the Water Quality Agreement.

A similar meeting was held Feb. 28 by Mayor Scott Warnock of Tay Township at; Victoria Harbour on Georgian Bay to hear from Canadian residents of lakeshore properties and that meeting with Mary Muter of the Sierra Club is also featured on YouTube at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fX_Mqt7-pFE

On April 28 scientists from the International Joint Commission held a meeting at city hall in Bay City to explain goals of a 5-year, $14.5 million International Upper Great Lakes Study is being paid for by the International Joint Commission, a bi-national agency that deals with boundary water disputes between the U.S. and Canada.

The study is examining whether a 1960s federal dredging project in the St. Clair River has increased the outflow from Michigan-Huron and contributed to a drop in water levels.

The City of Owen Sound, Ontario, held a public meeting June 13 with regional leaders to air problems residents and businesses are having because of low water in Georgian Bay.

Restore Our Waters International is demanding that governments finally address the dire economic and ecological impacts of 14 unprecedented years of low, and now record breaking water levels at the heart of the Great Lakes.

Over the last 80 years, human activity in the St. Clair and Detroit River corridor has permanently lowered Lakes Michigan and Huron by at least 20 inches. These activities include uncompensated navigation dredging and sand and gravel mining, which increased outflows from the middle lakes. These past actions coupled with a warmer and dryer climate have resulted in an inability to retain water in the middle and upper Great Lakes.

While all the Great lakes are now below their long term averages, Lakes Michigan and Huron are a factor of three times lower compared to the others.

As the Great Lakes experience near-record low water levels, fishermen in the Chicago area are running into problems, reports WBEZ Chicago.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reports November water levels in Lake Michigan last year were 28 inches lower than the long-term average.

"You know the place called the horseshoe?" asked Igor Danilishen, who has fished at Chicago's Montrose Harbor for decades. "There's a great big island in the middle of this horseshoe. We used to fish there. We don?t fish there anymore. Because it's too shallow, yeah. It's ducks and geese there instead of fish."

The low water also affects industrial fisheries and cargo shipping.

Several experts say the low water is due to the increased Lake Huron outflow at the St. Clair River.

"The Canadian and U.S. governments have to commit the funding and political will to fix this problem," said Roger Gauthier, a retired U. S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Hydrologist and the Chair of Restore Our Water International.

"While climate has affected levels in all the lakes, lakes Michigan and Huron have been severely low for the past 14 years. There are solutions to this problem which include underwater weirs or 'speed bumps' that can be placed in the Upper St. Clair River," added Gauthier.

A Canada -- U.S. agreement that called for compensation of navigation dredging in 1962 already exists. The agreement was never implemented and never rescinded. Restore Our Water International wants the terms of that agreement met and implemented in a responsible manner, respecting both upstream and downstream conditions.



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Dave Rogers

Dave Rogers is a former editorial writer for the Bay City Times and a widely read,
respected journalist/writer in and around Bay City.
(Contact Dave Via Email at carraroe@aol.com)

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