Water levels lift freighter loads, beach-goers

Rising Great Lakes levels could mean a faster current in the St. Clair River, less beach frontage for lakeside dwellings and heavier loads on freighters.

"There are some people on the lakes who I've talked to whose beaches are getting smaller and smaller," said Keith Kompoltowicz, chief of watershed hydrology for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Detroit District.

"However, the commercial boaters like it because they can load to capacity and get much more bang for their buck."

Kompoltowicz said water levels on Lakes Michigan and Huron are 19 to 20 inches above what they were last year at this time. The mean level for October so far is about 579.16 feet above sea level.

September was the first month since December 1998 that Lakes Michigan and Huron were above average.

Kompoltowicz said a six-month forecast predicts lake levels to stay about 15 to 19 inches above last year's measurements. He said those levels are about two to four inches higher than average for the same time period.

That's a big change, Kompoltowicz said, considering the shallow waters that plagued the Great Lakes in January 2013.

"We've gone from setting record lows in January 2013 to being above average in September 2014," Kompoltowicz said.

Kompoltowicz said the higher levels are a combination of favorable weather: A wet spring in 2013, a cold 2014 winter whose ice cover and snowpack stopped evaporation and increased runoff, and six consecutive months of higher-than-average precipitation.

Kompoltowicz said the higher levels likely will affect the flow of the St. Clair River.

"Both those lakes are higher, so that would lead us to believe the flow and the levels in the St. Clair River also are higher," Kompoltowicz said.

"We're seeing higher flow because of the higher water levels, and that would lead to a faster current."

Carl Wurmlinger, harbormaster for Lexington State Harbor, said rebounding water helps more boaters use the harbor.

"There's quite a few people that are border line whether they can get in or not," Wurmlinger said. "That extra one or two feet helps them get in."

But Wurmlinger said the higher water levels also present challenges this time of year when crews are preparing the marina for winter.

"Right now, what I'm finding at our harbor is its harder to winterize the docks because there's not much room between the dock and the water now," Wurmlinger said. He said the low clearance makes it difficult to get under the docks to winterize hoses and lines.

Jim Weakley, president of the Lake Carriers Association, said higher lake levels are good news for Great Lakes shipping. He said freighters are playing catch-up after losing about a month to significant ice coverage on the Great Lakes this spring.

Weakley said for a 1,000-footer, an extra inch of water typically means about 250 additional tons of cargo.

For smaller lakers or ocean-going ships, an extra inch of water means the freighter is able to hold about 90 more tons of cargo.

While the higher water levels likely will lead to heavier cargo loads, Weakley said freighters still must contend with sediment that's at collected river mouths and the threat that lower water levels might return.

Weakley said money for maintenance dredging decreased when water levels rose in the 1990s. He hopes that doesn't happen again now that water levels are back up.

"It's been a hard slog to get maintenance dollars back to where they needed to be all along," Weakley said.

"We're not calling an end to the dredging crisis. We're having what we call a temporary reprieve."

Contact Beth LeBlanc at (810) 989-6259 or eleblanc@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @THBethLeBlanc.