Panel will speed up Great Lakes study

Water levels in the lakes have been falling for years.

TORONTO GLOBE AND MAIL

In response to worries that the Great Lakes have sprung a giant leak, the Canada-U.S. organization that oversees the world’s largest storehouse of fresh water says it is speeding up its investigation into claims the lakes are losing unusually large amounts of their water.

The International Joint Commission announced last week that it now expects to be able to verify or disprove the allegations of excess water loss by February 2009, a full year ahead of schedule.

The commission made the decision to expedite its study of the lakes in Ottawa, and expects to have some preliminary information on the outflow problem next year.

The decision to hasten the study reflects the huge pressure the commission has been under in both Canada and the United States following the release of a report by the Georgian Bay Association in August. The report contends that dredging near Sarnia, Ont., in the early 1960s is causing Lakes Huron and Michigan to lose an enormous amount of water — enough to fill 4,000 Olympic-size pools.

“The commission understands the urgency of getting answers based on sound science as soon as possible,” Herb Gray, the Canadian co-chair of the commission, said in a statement on the announcement.

Lakes Huron and Michigan share the same water level because they are connected at their northern tip by the Straits of Mackinac. Levels on the lakes have been falling for years. But it isn’t clear if this is due to the existence of a larger drain hole, or part of a natural fluctuation due to the drought around Lake Superior, which itself is now at a record low for this time of year and supplies much of the water in the two downstream lakes.

When concerns about the possibility of a leak in the lakes surfaced, the commission had said it wouldn’t be able to have a panel of scientific experts confirm or disprove the claims of water loss until 2010.

The lengthy period alarmed and angered residents around the two lakes, where plunging water levels are already leaving marinas high and dry and causing many shallow areas to turn into meadows.

The St. Clair River was dredged in the early 1960s by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to allow it to accommodate larger ships. The Georgian Bay Association based its conclusions on a theory that the dredging made the river bed more susceptible to erosion, which over time has deepened it and caused more water to flow into Lake Erie.

At the time of the dredging, there were plans to reinforce the river botto m to reduce the possibility of erosion losses, but the work was never carried out.