Those leading a controversial study on low water levels in Lakes Michigan and Huron have given in to pressure to add two public hearings in Wisconsin. The study board had scheduled 14 public hearings with only one held along the western shore of Lake Michigan or in the Upper Peninsula.
Hearings are scheduled for July 7 in Fish Creek and July 8 at Concordia University in Mequon.
The $3.6 million study, funded by the International Joint Commission was released in May. Controversy bloomed when the report was made public but without the scientific research that drove the report’s conclusion. The draft report clears the Army Corps of Engineers from a long held allegation that a dredging project to remove a rocky bottom of the St. Clair River in the 1960s caused uncontrolled erosion that permanently lowered the levels of both Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.
The St. Clair River is the major outflow for Lakes Michigan and Huron, which are two lobes of the same big lake.
The Joint Commission-funded study, conducted by an independent board, concludes that the St. Clair River channel has gotten bigger since the 1960s. It places the blame on an ice jam in the 1980s for scouring the river bottom. It also says the erosion is not ongoing.
Part of the controversy is that the report was released before the study was externally peer-reviewed. Further inflaming critics is that the Joint Commission is paying for the peer review, to the tune of $250,000. Typically peer-review experts provide the analysis as a professional courtesy and are reimbursed for food, travel and lodging only. Normally, reviews of international scientific reports are not done by subcontractors, paid by the same organization, which funded the original report.
Conservationists and shoreline property owners should not be the only constituents concerned at the strange way such important research is being conducted. The Great Lakes compact, the agreement between the eight states that border the lakes, was passed in 2008 out of concern that the rest of the country was eying the world’s largest freshwater system as an answer to their regional water needs. Reduction of lake levels, whether caused by natural erosion or man-made mistakes is a serious threat to all of us.
Two more hearings are better than none at all but of course many people (myself included) interested in the study may find it impossible to attend either of the scheduled hearings. Anyone who is able to attend is encouraged to share insights here. Comments directed to the International Joint Commission can be made here.
Hearings:
Fish Creek hearing: 7 p.m. July 7; Door County Auditorium, 3926 Highway 42.
Mequon hearing: 6 p.m. July 8; Concordia University Wisconsin, Albrecht #113, 12800 N. Lake Shore Drive.
For more information on the hearings and public comment visit the study's website.
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