Corp may consider putting structures in St. Clair River to boost water levels in Lakes Huron, Michigan
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers may take another look at placing structures in the St. Clair River to boost water levels in Lakes Huron and Michigan.

The new record low of 175.57 meters or 576.02 feet is the lowest levels recorded, since record keeping began in 1918.
"Not only have water levels on Michigan-Huron broken records the past two months, but they have been very near record lows for the last several months before then. Lake Michigan-Huron’s water levels have also been below average for the past 14 years, which is the longest period of sustained below average levels since 1918 for that lake," said John Allis the chief of Great Lakes Hydraulics.

Two of the Great Lakes have hit their lowest water levels ever recorded, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said, capping more than a decade of below-normal rain and snowfall and higher temperatures that boost evaporation.

Measurements taken last month show Lake Huron and Lake Michigan have reached their lowest ebb since record keeping began in 1918, and the lakes could set additional records over the next few months, the corps said. The lakes were 29 inches below their long-term average and had declined 17 inches since January 2012.

The Great Lakes Governors have applauded recently introduced legislation in Congress that would "permanently fix the nation’s dysfunctional funding programme to maintain ports and harbours."

The governors pledged their support for the Realize America's Maritime Promise (RAMP) Act, HR 335, and commended the sponsors for their leadership in introducing this bill.

Legislators on the House Environment Committee criticized the Department of Natural Resource’s preferred barrier, a combination of light, sound and bubbles that one lawmaker called disco (because of the light and sound) and one called the Lawrence Welk method (because of the sound and bubbles).

 Water levels on Lake Michigan are the lowest in recorded history. If the level continues to drop, the Chicago River could reverse itself and send untreated sewage into Lake Michigan.

 "We've been monitoring since 1918 and this is the lowest Lake Michigan and Lake Huron have been," Roy Deda, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said. "There would be some potential water quality impact to the Great Lakes if we were to continue to lock vessels when the river is higher than the lake."

Operation Fall Retrieve, which involves 16 Coast Guard units along with two contracted companies to retrieve 1,282 navigational aids from the Great Lakes, is scheduled to be completed by Dec. 28.

Wisconsin and other Lake Michigan states agreed earlier this year to reduce stocking of chinook salmon by 50% next year. The plan is designed to better balance the populations of predator and prey fish and preserve the world-class trout and salmon fishing on the lake. Similar stocking reductions in 1999 and 2006 are credited with doing exactly that.

But Wisconsin fishery managers are left with one major question: how to allocate the 723,700 kings it plans to stock next year? A meeting to collect public input on that question was held Dec. 1 at Lakeshore Technical College in Cleveland, Wis.

Lake Huron will get 60,000 to 80,000 Atlantic salmon yearlings starting in 2013. That could climb to 120,000 in future years if more can be produced at Platte River State Fish Hatchery in Beulah, Grischke said. His agency has spent three years learning how to raise them. The hatchery primarily has been used to rear Chinook and Coho salmon. Growing Atlantics from an egg to yearling stage is a bit trickier, he said.

A tragedy at a federal fish hatchery along the Allegheny River near here has ultimately created a windfall for Lake Erie, and provided the potential building blocks toward restoring a piece of the lake’s rich history.

Ohio recently received about 123,000 lake trout fingerlings from the Allegheny National Fish Hatchery, which sits in the mountains that straddle the Pennsylvania-New York line, near Jamestown.

After three years of experimentation to determine whether Atlantic salmon can be successfully reared in state hatcheries, Michigan DNR fishery biologists say it’s time to shift gears.

“We’ll have 60,000 to 80,000 Atlantic salmon yearlings available for planting in 2013,” said Todd Grischke, the Lake Huron basin coordinator for the Michigan DNR. “We are going into the stocking phase and will be evaluating the plants: where they go, where to best stock them and what to expect once we do.”