Water Levels In Three Great Lakes Dropping - Superior On Track For Record Low - NYT

[hatrack]

Water levels in the three upper Great Lakes are wavering far below normal, and experts expect Lake Superior, the northernmost lake, to reach a record low in the next two months, according to data from the international bodies that monitor the Great Lakes, the world’s largest freshwater reservoir.

Although the cause of the falling levels is in dispute, the effects in Lakes Michigan and Huron are visible everywhere. Ship channels are overdue for dredging. Wetlands in some areas like Georgian Bay, east of Lake Huron in Ontario, have dried up, leaving fish and birds without accustomed places to reproduce.

Beaches around Saginaw Bay in Michigan have reverted to marshes as shorefront reverts to wetlands. One-third of the Michigan boat ramps are unusable. Although the drop in levels in all three lakes is variously ascribed to climate change or new rainfall patterns, evidence is growing that people caused some losses in Lakes Huron and Michigan.

Gravel mining early in the 20th century by private companies and dredging by the Army Corps of Engineers, particularly in the mid-1960s, may have widened and deepened the St. Clair River, through which those two lakes drain into Lake Erie.

EDIT

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/14/us/14lakes.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[valerief]

1. We're gonna have to rename Superior to Penultimate. nt

[madrchsod]

2. no rain in that area

central wisconsin south to upper central illinois is over 5+ inches of rain for this time of year.

in the early sixties where i am in northern illinois we started to see a few geese wintering over by our river ,now today there are several thousand geese plus ducks within 10 miles. all up and down the rock river in illinois there are large populations of geese and ducks...it`s getting warmer...

[Delphinus]

3. Wow!

Don't the western states, Arizona and California, want to "mine" the water from Lake Michigan? If nothing else, this reality should squash that idea.

[malakai2]

4. "May" have widened and deepened?

Either it did or it didn't. And since we know that material was removed from the waterway...

I imagine alteration of the Soo Rapids, creation of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, and other such "improvements" didn't help either.