lake michigan – Aquarius-Systems

Record High Water Levels Threaten Shoreline

Tue, 31 Mar 2020 14:58:00 +0000

In 2013, Lake Michigan lake levels bottomed out after a 15-year span of lows that was the longest in recorded history. Now, the high-water is sending the roughly 4.2 million people who live within two miles of the coast scrambling.

2019 which was the wettest on record in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin, and precipitation was well above average for every other state and province in the watershed. Last year, Lakes Erie and Ontario each broke record high marks. Lakes Superior, Michigan and Huron each came within about an inch of record highs set more than 30 years ago in the mid-1980s.

The 10,000-mile Great Lakes shoreline winds around eight U.S. states and Canada. Across the region, contractors are booking into the fall to move or demolish homes, or repair and install seawalls, revetments, rip-rap and other rock armor that’s being used to protect beaches and near-shore structures from the relentless waves.

But more than just beach homes are being affected, coastal towns are facing the potential impact on tourism from sand loss and event cancellations due to the rising water. In Michigan alone, the 100 days from Memorial Day to Labor Day can bring year-long prosperity to the state’s shorelines in the form of the $15.4 billion water tourism and recreation industry that generates an estimated $1 billion in tax revenues.

Michigan’s coastal towns so far project about $63 million in damage from high water. That figure grows when considering costs to state systems, like roads and parks, that also are threatened by erosion. Communities collectively face up to an estimated half-billion or more in losses when potential lost tourist revenue enters the equation.

Carbon Dioxide Could Keep Asian Carp out of Great Lakes

Tue, 05 Jul 2016 23:00:00 +0000

In a research pond in La Crosse, Wisconsin, scientists from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and U.S. Geological Survey are testing the effectiveness of a new strategy to ward off an Asian carp invasion that’s threatening the health of the Great Lakes, including Lake Michigan.

The study called for placing a carbon dioxide infusion system on one side of the pond that withdrew water, treating it with high levels of carbon dioxide and then pumping that carbon dioxide-rich water back into the pond. Results showed that silver carp and bighead carp, two different species of Asian carp, avoided water treated with carbon dioxide as did native fish such as bigmouth buffalo, channel catfish and yellow perch. However researchers are puzzled as to why the paddlefish did not avoid the area.

Adding carbon dioxide to the water is indicative of poor habitat causing the fish to swim away and look for more oxygen. The carbon dioxide lowers the water’s pH, making it more acidic.

If adding carbon dioxide to the water does go into a real-world setting, it would deter the movement of all fish species, so that’s something that needs to be considered before it moves to a field application.

Read More https://afspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1080/00028487.2016.1143397

Asian Carp Threaten the Great Lakes and Demand Urgent Action

Tue, 04 Feb 2014 16:40:20 +0000

Asian carp were imported from China to the U.S. in the 1970s to remove algae from catfish farms and wastewater treatment ponds. Somehow they escaped and migrated north through the Mississippi and Illinois rivers.

The species spawn in rivers and feed on phytoplankton, disrupting the food chain for younger fish. The voracious eaters can weigh as much as 100 pounds and grow to four feet. The longer the carp remain in large numbers, the greater the chance that they could devastate the aquatic environment.

Asian carp made national headlines in 2010, when federal and state officials worked to track the fish in Illinois and the carp threatened to reach the Great Lakes via the Chicago River. It was predicted that the carp would crush the Great Lake fishing industry and destroy the already fragile ecosystem if infiltrated.

In 2013, Asian carp DNA was discovered in the Wisconsin waters of Lake Michigan. It can’t be determined how the DNA got into the water whether by a live fish, dead or from a bird, but the threat is real. Last month, a joint Army Corps and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service report showed fish were moving through the electronic barrier in the Chicago Waterway meant to serve as Lake Michigan’s last line of defense against the carp.

With the Asian carp within 55 miles of Lake Michigan, the Army Corps of Engineers were assigned the task of determining how to keep the carp from reaching Lake Michigan. After seven years, the report outlines eight different options, but didn’t recommend one.

The options provided include physical separation, special locks and gates and chemical agents. In a situation where time is of the essence, one option which relies largely on a new kind of lock, chemical treatments and more, but with limited physical barriers would take about 10 years and $8 billion to implement.

Another option would take 25 years and $15 billion to $18 billion and while may be the most effective option has now only time and cost hindering it, but would have a cost impact on commercial cargo. This option faces much criticism from business interests.

That option would be to put a physical separation at the edge of Lake Michigan. Not only would this keep the Asian carp out of Lake Michigan, but also prevent the invaders found in Lake Michigan from making their way into the Mississippi watershed.

While the separation is going to have a lot of opponents, it seems to be the only real solution that will truly protect the Great Lakes. It will not only stop the Asian carp from coming into the Great Lakes, it will stop any further diversion of the Great Lakes water.

According to a 2012 study by Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans, it would take as few as 10 male and 10 female Asian carp to establish a reproducing population in the Great Lakes.

Read the Report https://www.lrd.usace.army.mil/Missions/Projects/Article/3646258/great-lakes-and-mississippi-river-interbasin-study-glmris/