December 10, 2020
By Jake Draugelis
Lansing - A bipartisan bill (click here) has passed the Senate to address rising water levels and shoreline erosion. The bill would provide support for local communities facing rising water levels, coastal erosion, and flooding that have put homes and property at risk, and caused millions of dollars in damages. The bill was cosponsored by Senators Gary Peters (D-MI), Ron Johnson (R-WI), Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), and James Lankford (R-OK).
With lake Michigan matching the record for highest water level ever recorded in 2019, then beating it in 2020, communities in Michigan are facing serious shoreline erosion challenges. Rising waters have destroyed homes and beaches and have even forced residents to relocate. The new bill would establish loans that local governments could access to help mitigate the impact of rising water levels, coastal erosion and other damage caused by natural disasters in a more cost-effective way.
“Michigan’s communities around the Great Lakes continue to be threatened by rising water levels, coastal erosion, and flooding that are wreaking havoc on people’s lives and causing damage to public and private property,” said Senator Peters. “I am committed to ensuring that Michiganders and our beautiful coastlines are protected. I am proud that my bipartisan bill has passed the Senate and I will continue to fight to ensure that it is signed into law as soon as possible so we can provide our communities with the cost-effective and commonsense tools needed to mitigate the effects of these natural disasters.”...
I have never seen the St. Lawrence Seaway so poorly managed as it has been the past four years. The erosion along the Great Lakes is an emergency all by itself. It has never been like this.
February 27, 2020
By Garrett Ellison
Massena - The annual start of navigation (click here) through the St. Lawrence Seaway is being pushed back this spring by efforts to alleviate high water levels on Lake Ontario.
On Wednesday, Feb. 25, U.S. and Canadian Seaway managers announced that oceangoing vessels would not be able to enter the Great Lakes until April 1, a delay of nearly two weeks from March 20, when marine executives wanted to open the shipping lock system....
...The board that decides dam flow-through rates will increase outflows above safe levels for ships until April. The goal is to draw down Lake Ontario as much as possible heading into what’s expected to be another year of record high water levels across the Great Lakes.
High water problems have been felt acutely along the Lake Ontario shoreline. Severe coastal flooding struck in 2017 following a change in lake level management. Flooding struck again last summer, when levels broke an all-time record set in 1918.
While shoreline residents were happy to learn about the efforts to draw Lake Ontario down, the shipping industry is less than enthused. Marine executives said the delay will disrupt commercial supply chains that link Midwest ports to global markets....
