Listen to the podcast.

Low Water Levels in the Great Lakes

About two feet of water is missing from Lake Superior.

If you take the broader view – that water levels rise and fall every 30 years in the Great Lakes, perhaps following an even longer, 150-year cycle – it’s not such a big deal. But tell that to the shipping industry, shoreline homeowners, recreational boaters and fishermen whose way of life has come to depend upon water levels reaching full capacity.

Extremely low water levels mean ships must lighten their loads considerably – dropping as much as 6,000 tons per trip – in order to safely enter ports. Companies that load and unload ships face the costly task of constant dredging. Recreational boating companies have watched water fall away from their docks so dramatically as to render them useless. And lower water levels also bring buried toxicants, accumulated over 100 years of industry, closer to the surface and back into the food chain.

Researchers say air and water temperatures are up considerably since 1980, making water evaporate faster. An overall reduction in ice and snow over the past several decades and stronger winds have also promoted greater evaporation, bringing water levels to an all-time low. The snowy winter will help, but hydrologists say it will take lots of above-average snow and continued rainfall in the spring to start filling in what’s been lost.

Policy makers are debating what to do – if anything. Based on historical data, water levels should rise again at some point. The question, of course, is when.

For more information about this issue, click here or read this article.

To read more about this and other environmental health issues, go to www.environmentalhealthnews.org, www.ourstolenfuture.org or www.healthandenvironment.org.

To read more about this and other environmental health issues, go to: www.environmentalhealthnews.org, www.ourstolenfuture.org, or www.healthandenvironment.org