Water levels in the Great Lakes will be a little lower this year.
Projections through August have been released by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and while all the Great Lakes are expected to be slightly lower than average, the level for Lake Michigan and Huron is currently a foot below normal. That won’t be a huge issue for recreational boaters, but freighters may struggle more this year.
Lake Carriers Association Vice President Eric Peace says some waterways will be more difficult than others.
“The biggest challenges for us are going to be connecting waterways,” Peace said. “So the river systems like the St. Mary’s River that connects Lake Superior to the lower lakes of Huron and Michigan, the Detroit-St. Clair River, which connects obviously Lake Huron to Lake Erie, those would be some of our biggest concerns because those areas tend to shallow up quicker.”
Peace says the biggest issue for freighters is the amount they can carry.
“We call them drafts. So the ship has drafts — how far, how deep it sits in the water. For every inch that we lose of that draft on our largest vessels, we have to leave 270 tons on the dock that can’t be transported because of the weight.”
Peace says some ports will also pose a problem because they become shallow and fill with sediment when water levels dip.
While the impact for recreational boaters will be minimal, officials still recommend monitoring the conditions before hitting the water.
