Lakes Huron, Erie almost tied; Many factors play into dropping water levels: study
April 08, 08 by TheFleetIf you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Posted By JOHN MINNIS | Source: The Sarnia Observer
[T]he Great Lakes [were] addressed by experts at the fourth Binational Lake St. Clair Conference held recently in Harrison Township, Michigan.
According to records kept by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the elevation difference between lakes Huron and Erie was nine feet in 1918, the earliest year for which comparable data are available. Today, the difference is five feet.
Rob Nairn, a principal with W.F. Baird and Associates of Oakville, Ontario, who authored a 2005 study on the elevation difference between lakes Michigan-Huron and St. Clair-Erie, told conference attendees the decline was due to sand mining, shipping canal dredging before 1960 and, more recently, erosion in the St. Clair River.
…Lower lake levels reduce the amount of cargo that ships can transport through the lakes.
