Water Levels on Lake Michigan.

Report from the
Environmental & Waterways Committee Chair,

P/C Dennis Stein, P

One of my major concerns these last few years has been the water level on Lake Michigan. From what I have been able to learn, the levels on all the great lakes are cyclical and we appear to have hit our lows for this cycle and are now back on our path to higher water. There are some very nice charts on the www.noaa.gov web site if you search out great lakes water levels and you can select different criteria to build the chart that gives you the data you might like to see best. Searched from 2000 til present: we saw that in 2000 the high was about 578 feet above sea level.

Towards 2001 the levels dropped to 576.75 ft. Most of 2001 was around 577 ft, In 2006 we had slipped down to 575.8 ft. but the recent readings are showing that we are around the 578.5 ft. level. The latest forcast I've seen is looking for a rise this year (from the snow melt) of between 4 and 9 inches; so I'm pretty happy that we shouldn't have any problems launching, retrieving and docking this year. At the time of this writing, we are right about 577.5 ft. I plan on keeping an eye on levels so I'll keep you posted.

I have been hearing that people on the Fox Lake chain and river system are finding that zebra mussels have been having a population explosion. A friend reports that rocks near his dock are just covered with them. Time will tell what effect they have on the chain, but initially, I look for this to be a good thing for the water clarity. The clarity lets plants grow deeper and populations of fish and other critters hide in the plants. Again, I remind some of our older members who might, as I do, remember not being able to see an inch in front of your face in lake Michigan. Now, I routinely look down and see rock formations in 30 and 40 ft. of water. I plan on the next report having a look at both the mussels and the Asian Carp invaders in both the Fox River system and Lake Michigan.

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