Georgian Bay Forever

When the Bay's water levels fell dramatically in 1999, our committee drew on shared experience - some as engineers with professional backgrounds in hydraulics - and began to collect data. Eventually, they ran their own crude model of the St. Clair River, determining that an increase in conveyance was likely contributing to the low water levels.

Their findings were prescient. In 2004, GBF retained the internationally respected coastal engineering firm W.F. Baird to investigate the Bay's low water levels. The Baird Report confirmed that shoreline hardening in Lake Huron and the St. Clair river, sand and gravel mining, and navigational dredging were contributing to the increase in the conveyance capacity of the St. Clair River; a significant contributing factor to the continuing low water levels. We presented the findings to the International Joint Commission (IJC) and they added the St. Clair River to their $17M International Upper Great Lakes Study.

In December 2009, the International Upper Great Lakes Study Board (IUGLSB) released its report on the St. Clair River. Some of its key findings contrasted with those found in the Baird Report. Most distressingly, the main recommendation of the IUGLSB final report – that no remedial measures are needed to slow down the outflow of the middle Great Lakes – ignores the consequence of the continuing and irretrievable loss of water from Lakes Huron-Michigan and Georgian Bay. The IUGLSB had previously conceded that up to six billion more gallons (almost 23 billion litres) of water per day are flowing out of the Middle Lakes compared to 1971, but they have now decided that the amount is too insignificant to  justify any remediation in the St. Clair River.

Georgian Bay Forever, along with such heavyweights as the US National Wildlife Federation, Great Lakes United, and the Waterkeepers Alliance, have united in calling the report incomplete and inconsistent.

Georgian Bay Forever believes losing this much water from the middle Great Lakes must not continue. With climate change imminent and adequate future water supplies uncertain, remedial action is required immediately.

To this end:

The IJC should establish a binational Control Board to monitor and regulate the flow of water out of the single body of water that is made up of Lakes Huron, Michigan and Georgian Bay. The three other Great Lakes have binational Control Boards and some form of control structures to regulate outflows. The IUGLSB’s report admits no reliable flow data on the St. Clair River have existed since 1986. A Control Board would be able to establish reliable data needed to devise sensible solutions. Georgian Bay Forever believes independent scientific reviews show the conveyance increase of the St. Clair River – the amount of extra water flowing through the river – is double what the IUGLSB has acknowledged in its report.

The IJC should consider recommending the installation of flexible control measures in the St. Clair River. These types of structures could slow down the outflow during periods of low water on the middle lakes, but be adjusted when water levels are within normal or high cycles. Right now, with levels near the long-term average on Lakes Erie and Ontario – but still below the long-term average on Lakes Michigan, Huron and Georgian Bay in spite of unusually high precipitation levels there – it would be possible to return some of the "lost" water to the middle lakes with no significant impact on the lower lakes.
 

SINK OR SOLVE?

• The IJC examined the St. Clair River issue as early as 1917 and designed mitigation as recently as 1993. They have yet to implement it, however, despite past approvals by both U.S. and Canadian governments
• Drawing down Lake Superior to alleviate the crisis in Michigan/Huron/Georgian Bay is both wrong and impractical
• New technology and possible feasible solutions studied by the IJC include a water-inflatable (and deflatable) bladder in the deep, scoured out part of the St. Clair River; and/or submerged turbines in the deep sections that are now over 60 feet deep, which could slow the flow when needed and also generate green energy
• Ships need only 30 feet of depth, so there's plenty of room for remedial measures!

With both the Canadian and U.S. governments actively funding restoration projects and green energy initiatives, there is no better opportunity to solve a chronic problem. GBF, along with 90 other members of the Healing Our Waters Coalition, is well-poised to bring the voice of Georgian Bay to the debate.