Don’t dam Great Lakes, experts warn
Canada-u.s. report advises against major engineering to manage water flow
Bob Duncanson remembers the days years ago when he could kayak through the wetlands near his family’s cottage on Georgian Bay’s east coast.
Today, a rise of land covered in bushes and young pine trees juts out from the middle of the wetlands — a product of Lake Huron’s evershrinking water levels over the last decade.
“It’s a changing landscape,” said Duncanson, executive director of the Georgian Bay Association, an environmental group that has lobbied for government action to restore the lake to its natural level.
On Wednesday, a Canadian-u.s. advisory group released a report on the Great Lakes that recommended against the use of major engineering projects to manage Great Lakes water flow — such as dams and other structures — due to cost and potential environmental damage.
The report, based on a $14.6 million study that involved roughly 200 engineers and scientists over a five-year period, instead suggested that stakeholders allow Mother Nature to play her part and allow water levels to rise and fall naturally, according to Ted Yuzyk, Canadian co-chairman of the International Upper Great Lakes Study Board.
The findings were submitted to the International Joint Commis- sion, a body that advises the U.S. and Canadian government on issues affecting the Great Lakes. For Duncanson, who said Georgian Bay’s low water levels have already threatened wetlands and hurt marinas and other shoreline businesses, the report’s recommendations come as a major disappointment. “We believe there should be some government activity to start to address this as we look forward,” he said. “We’re looking for leadership on this and we’re not sure we’re seeing it.” Dr. Pat Chow-fraser, a Mcmaster University biologist who researches the Great Lakes, said the report’s suggestion that water-level solutions are too costly or environmentally risky signifies a “do-nothing attitude” that compromises ailing Great Lakes coastal wetlands. “We’ve been living with these low water levels for too long a time,” Chow-fraser said. “There are ways to do this gradually so there aren’t undue negative impacts.” But it’s not as simple as raising Lake Huron’s water levels, Yuzyk said, noting that the binational na- ture of the International Joint Commission means that both governments must agree on action.
Raising Lake Huron’s water levels could compromise Lake Michigan, he said, given that all lakes are connected and changing water levels in one could hurt another.
He added that he was disappointed he and other researchers failed to come up with a solution to the water-level issue, but said he believed the report advanced knowledge of scientific and climate change issues related to the Great Lakes for both governments.