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Michigan lakes rise, lift spirits

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dlucier
Master Marine Consultant

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Virgin Islands (United Kingdom)
7583 Posts

Initially Posted - 04/12/2004 : 22:23:59

From the Sunday Detroit News...

<font size="5">Michigan lakes rise, lift spirits</font id="size5">

<font size="4">Boating prospects good for St. Clair, Great Lakes</font id="size4">
By Doug Guthrie / The Detroit News

Avery Armstrong leaned over the edge of the gas dock at St. Clair Boat Harbor and took his annual April measurement of the distance from the deck to the water’s surface.

For the first time in the four years Armstrong has served as the city’s harbormaster, the water was higher than the previous spring — 10 inches higher.

That’s good news for Great Lakes boaters who have suffered through years of low water levels that exposed rock beaches and created navigational hazards.

“It looks like we are going back up on the pendulum swing,” Armstrong said. “Now, if gas prices would stop going up too, this could be a great boating season.”

Armstrong’s measurement for the St. Clair River was confirmed to be the same for Lake St. Clair by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which predicts water levels throughout the Great Lakes will continue to rise through the summer.

On lakes Huron and Michigan, the level is up 7 inches and should be more than a foot deeper than last year when the boating season starts next month. Lake Erie is 8 inches deeper than last spring and Superior is 1 inch deeper. Both are predicted to gain another 4 inches of depth by May. Lake Ontario also is up 7 inches and is expected to gain another 6.

While the water is deeper, it’s not a cause for all-out celebration because levels still will remain below average, leaving shoreline residents to face areas of slightly sloping lake bottoms revealed over the last four years in bays like Saginaw and Grand Traverse.

“We would need about 3 feet on Huron and Michigan to get what people are used to,” said Tom Allenson, a biologist with the Army Corps of Engineers.

Greg Waszak, store manager at Land’s End Marina in Harrison Township, said boater enthusiasm is rising right along with the water levels.

“It’s great to be looking at more water,“ he said. “People are bundling up and going out earlier than normal. It’s cool, but it’s not that bad. It’s always good to be on the water.”

The rebound began last fall with a wet season and moderate temperatures that caused a low evaporation rate. Then came not only more snow, but the right kind of snow.

“January and March were incredibly wet,” said Tim Calappi, a physical scientist assigned to the Great Lakes Watershed Hydrology office in Detroit. “Specifically, March was really wet on Lake Superior and Lake Huron.”

Unlike recent years, when frequent lake-effect storms pulled moisture out of the lakes, Calappi said storms this winter delivered moisture from outside the region to replenish water supplies here.

“Fourteen inches of water over the surface of those big lakes is a lot of water,” Calappi said about the possible summerlong rise of Huron and Michigan. “A single inch on Lake Superior is huge.”

The anticipated peak won’t occur until late July or August. Levels won’t reach long-term season averages and won’t come close to record highs of the 1980s that caused beaches to erode and cottages to fall into the surf, he said.

The Coast Guard warns boaters that higher water won’t make navigating any easier in some areas, especially on Lake St. Clair, where the deepest shipping channels are about 40 feet.

“It is a shallow lake with a lot of shoals,” said Petty Officer Michael Monaghan. “We’ve pulled a lot of boats off the sand at Gaukler Shoal (about a mile off the Coast Guard station at St. Clair Shores). It’s still going to be only a foot or two deep there.”

Calappi also warned that Lake St. Clair is prone to short-term fluctuations in water levels from rainfall and weather conditions such as wind.

Bob Ferguson, 62, said the water is up about a foot at the St. Clair River boathouse in Marysville, where he keeps his 37-foot Sea Ray. The rising water level is great, but it still might not be enough, he said.

“It could be higher,” Ferguson said. “I still have trouble getting my boat in. I have neighbors who still can’t use their docks.”

*******************************************************************

This is good news for me, considering I just repaired some cosmetic damage to the lower front portion of my keel curtesy of a submerged rock and a powerboat.

Don Lucier

North Star SR/FK

Edited by - on

falco_esq
1st Mate

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USA
60 Posts

Response Posted - 04/13/2004 : 00:06:10

Great news Don. Thanks!!

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John V.
Admiral

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USA
559 Posts

Response Posted - 04/15/2004 : 11:08:56

Great news Don,
I had a new dock built last season. Pictured in how far do you have to travel to your boat thread.
It is on truck wheels at the end of 7' well pipe.
my dock guy can just push it in to the St. Marys to the proper depth and I'm good for the summer. So...higher water is great news!! Note last summers low water, lots of shore line. Hidden behind the foliage to the right is the old dock. About 30 ft remain of a 120 ft crib dock lost to the ill planned and destructive experiment in winter navigation.

This is what sails by the dock every hour or so. I think the big lakers are cheering the new water levels too.

Edited by - John V. on 04/15/2004 17:31:21

dlucier
Master Marine Consultant

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Virgin Islands (United Kingdom)
7583 Posts

Response Posted - 04/15/2004 : 21:19:35

Here's a good link for water levels on the Great Lakes.

[url="http://www.great-lakes.net/envt/water/levels/levels_current.html"]Current Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Water Levels[/url]

Edited by - on

osmepneo
Past Commodore

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USA
1420 Posts

Response Posted - 04/16/2004 : 20:43:39

Don, thanks for sharing the article from the Free-Press. It is great to hear that water levels are going to up this season. Now if we can just get rid of our ice!

Edited by - on

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