WaterDropping lake levels in Michigan are a cause for concern

In a state that boasts 11,000 lakes, Michigan is going through a year long drought that has residents and businesses scrambling as water levels continue to decrease.  Many residents in Michigan are dealing with the low waters – the result of low snowpack last winter and a hot dry summer this year.  Carim Calkins is one of these residents.

“The water is so low, “I bent my prop,” Calkins, who lives on the West Bloomfield Township lake and owns a 22-foot deck boat, told the Detroit Free Press. “As the water continues to drop, it’s hard to get the boat out of the lift, and it’s hard to get the boat out into the lake without hitting bottom.”

The level of Middle Straits Lake is down almost half a foot below normal as of 27 July. The lake has also dropped two inches from the previous week according to the data from the Oakland County Water Resources commissioner’s office Web site.

Scott Brown, executive director of Michigan Lake and Stream Associations, wrote in an e-mail last month, “It has reached a point that boats typically moored at docks or piers are no longer floating in navigable depth waters.”

Even in metro Detroit rainfall is down 2.14 inches from the average of 7.12 inches and 2.95 inches from the normal average of 19.66 inches as of last Friday. Brown does not see the situation improving anytime soon.

“The lakes will be down the rest of the summer unless we get drastic amounts of rainfall,” Brown told the Free Press. “If we get back to a normal rainfall pattern and normal snowfall pattern this winter, then maybe next spring we’ll be back up again.”

With the summer consistently hot and dry there is every reason to expect that things will only get worse before they improve.

Steven Korth, a manager at the OCRCO, said the county’s lake levels have not been this low in eight to ten years.

Making things harder is the fact that Michigan’s lake levels are monitored on a lake by lake basis, according to Michigan State University’s Patricia Soranno, a professor in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife who studies inland water bodies. So deep lakes may not be as affected by the lack of rain, as shallow lakes are.

In addition to the effect the lack of rain is having on citizens and businesses, it is also hurting the eco-system in the area. Since shallower, warmer waters produce more vegetation, Tony Groves, water resources director at environmental consulting firm Progressive AE in Grand Rapids has said his company which manages the vegetation once a year on a normal basis, has had to do it twice this year.

“By doing it twice a year, it’s putting us at the limits we can afford with our current levels of dues,” Calkins said, noting that it costs more than $4,000 each time.

The water is also affecting the fish (mostly trout) in the area. As the water warms throughout the summer, its ability to hold dissolved oxygen decreases, which fish need to survive. Fish kills occur naturally in the area, but they are occurring earlier in the year than normal. In the warm water the fish’s metabolism increases causing them to move around more but without enough oxygen they will die.

Bryan Burroughs, executive director for Michigan Trout Unlimited, which works to preserve the state’s coldwater fish populations and their watersheds, said the high temperatures are affecting trout streams across the state.

“We’re expecting that we’ll have some pretty severe trout die-offs this year.” Burroughs said.