Ohioans Should Be Concerned About The Feds Messing With Lake Erie Levels

I had been planning to blog about the International Upper Great Lakes Levels Study (IUGLS)and its implications for Lake Erie in a series of future posts.  When the Army Corps subscription notification of the Monthly Levels Bulletin arrived in my in-box this morning, as is my practice, I clicked my way to the Lake Erie levels chart for the month at:

http://www.lre.usace.army.mil/_kd/go.cfm?destination=ShowItem&Item_ID=3883

Once there, I realized that there was a strange dip in the Lake Erie level for the past month.  Such a dip, but to a lesser degree, occurred in February 2010 as the result of an ice jam on the St Clair River.  To check the cause of this year’s dip, I clicked the link to the chart which displays the six month projection for all the lakes at:

http://www.lre.usace.army.mil/_kd/go.cfm?destination=ShowItem&Item_ID=3887

Sure enough, there was another St Clair River ice jam this year.  Amazingly, this year’s jam was apparently worse than last year’s and earned a special note on the Lake St Clair chart.  Even more amazing, this year’s jam was sufficiently bad to affect not only Lakes St Clair and Erie, but also Lake Ontario.  As the chart shows, Lake Ontario was totally unaffected by last year’s St Clair River Jam.

For those unfamiliar with the IUGLS activity, it has been ongoing for about five years.  The documentation of the study activities to date and the overall plan is available at http://www.iugls.org/ .  The study has an extensive public input activity and has held meetings around the Great Lakes over the past years.  The public comments received in 2009 are at the following location:

http://pub.iugls.org/en/Other_Publications/Public_Questions_and_Comments.pdf   

I was the author of “Comment 9” on page 8 which reads as follows.

I attended the IUGLS presentations in Toledo and Cleveland and reviewed the draft report and project summaries. I am a life‐long resident of Northern Ohio, a Great Lakes boater for 40 years, and a lakefront property owner for 18 years.

I was, in general, positively impressed by the preliminary results to date. It is clearly a vast improvement over the control algorithm that has governed the control of the Lake Superior outflow for the past several decades. I hope that the results of the multiple studies will be applied to the improvement of the IJC control algorithms. I do not believe that control structures in the St. Clair River are advisable at the present time and I am deeply concerned that the impact of any such structures on Lake Erie has not been fully evaluated. Lake levels should be allowed to follow their natural seasonal patterns to the extent possible with the minimum amount of human intervention.

There is clearly a conflict between the interests of various lake users as well as conflicts between similar users in different areas. For example, what is good for Georgian Bay property owners is bad for property owners along the Michigan/Lake Michigan coastline and any changes will clearly affect all users of the Great Lakes.

I believe that the most valuable portions of the present study were those dealing with climate change and isostatic rebound. The climate change segments clearly indicated the shortcoming of the Residual NBS determination approach that has been used for decades. I hope alternate approaches will be adopted.

The change in calculation methods for isostatic rebound using the basin outlet locations rather than basin averages is also an improvement over past practice. Isostatic rebound is a fact of nature that all residents must live with. It should be pointed out that Edwin Moseley looked at Isostatic rebound along the south shore of Lake Erie more than a hundred years ago. He predicted that Port Clinton Ohio would be underwater by now. He was wrong. In the future, the science of GPS should allow more and more accurate evaluations/predictions of rebound as the science develops.  I hope it will be used to its fullest capability.

The least encouraging portion of the presently used science is the continued use of outdated and inappropriate approaches for evaluating the river flow conditions. The use of “Manning’s equation” for control purposes by the IJC is inappropriate. When Manning derived it 120 years, he established its limits of applicability and these are not met by the conditions of the St Clair River. The so‐called “weed factors” and “ice factors” seems to have little correlation to what actually exists in the rivers. I see little value in the high resolution static analysis of a highly dynamic river system which is poorly understood even at a gross level.

Hopefully, a specific recommendation of the study will be to implement a new control algorithm for the Lake Superior outflow with a closer connection to actual conditions in the rivers and over the lakes and their watersheds.

Thank you for the opportunity to submit my comments.

The board’s response to my comment can be found on the website.  Since the time of my comments, the study has continued to proceed with its very detailed, albeit flawed, analysis which ignores the effect of the Niagara River flows on levels throughout the lakes. 

While the analysis may be flawed, the study team seems extremely certain of its conclusions, stating that the effect of any “Rounding Errors or Unknowns” is “Negligible.”  (Final Report, December 2009, Figure Ex-2, page vi.)  I respectfully disagree.  I also hope that any readers with property or marine interests in Ohio will urge the study team to leave the river alone unless and until they can get a better handle on what effect any changes they may recommend will actually have on Lake Erie’s levels.

In general, I think Ohioans objectives should follow those of the Lake Michigan residents in Michigan who have asked the Study Team to leave well enough alone.  For some of their comments, see:

 http://www.iugls.org/lake-michiganders-dont-want-to-see-water-levels-raised.aspx

If you agree, drop the IUGLS folks a note at http://www.iugls.org/ContactUs.aspx

Much more on this topic later.

Asian Carp – Let the Kentuckians Keep Their Kentucky Tuna

One of the most fascinating aspects of researching early Lake Erie history is that the early legal cases are closely linked to effects of technology and changes in the natural environment.  Typically, one reference leads to another in a never-ending chain of cause and effect.  It also sometimes leads to fascinating “if only” questions. 

For example, one of the key cases to reach the Ohio Supreme Court in the 19th century was Sloan v. Biemiller (1878) 34 Ohio St. 492.  It involved fishing rights off of Cedar Point.  (Probably near the location of the present amusement park)  The Court’s opinion was based on innovations in fishing technology when the use of seines was replaced by the use of pound fishing.  Until the introduction of pound fishing, the owners of the shore claimed the right to control all fishing near the shore without argument. 

In a desire to understand what the Sloan Court was talking about, I chased down a report made by the United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries to The 50th Congress, Second Session (1891), Congressional Report Misc. 133.  That report summarized the state of commercial fishing at the time of Sloan.  The report included an extensive discussion of commercial fishing on the Great Lakes, including the technologies used, the harvest size by year, and a prediction of the future of commercial Great Lakes fishing. 

The Commission correctly predicted that the future was grim.  After the Sloan decision, fishing in Lake Erie was largely unregulated and growing at a rampant pace.  It represented a prime example of “The Tragedy of the Commons.”  This theoretical concept is a key focus of what modern law schools teach in introductory environmental law classes.  See, for example, http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/TragedyoftheCommons.html  for a concise and easy to read explanation.

With much hand wringing about the future of the commercial fishing industry, the Commission recommended a novel solution – the introduction and propagation of European carp.  The carp were described in glowing terms as follows:

“Sufficient attention has not been paid in the United States to the introduction of the European carp as a food fish, and yet it is quite safe to say that there is no other species that promises so great a return in limited waters.” (at page lxxvi)

History showed the Commission to be wrong.  A great book on the history of Great Lakes fishing is Margaret Beattie Bogue’s Fishing the Great Lakes – An Environmental History (2000).  Ms. Bogue notes how changes in transportation and food preservation had permitted entrepreneurs engaged in commercial fishing to expand by shipping the “deer of the lakes” (whitefish) as far as Liverpool.  (p34.)

Bogue provides an excellent and easy to read summary of the expansion of commercial exploitation of the “infinite resources” of the lakes and their collapse less than half a century later.  She provides a detailed look at how the state and national governments of the Great Lakes blew it.

With the benefit of an extra century of perspective, Ms. Bogue has a slightly different take on the Good Carp – Bad Carp Issue, as follows:

“In the 1870’s, fish culturists experimenting with ways to increase species suitable for

commercial use released two (intruded species) into the Great Lakes waters: the alewife and the carp.”

For a time, enthusiasm for carp ran high.  In 1888, Seth Green wrote a small book in which he advocated that farmers raise carp and provided instructions on the construction of carp ponds.  ......  Introduced into Sandusky Bay in 1888, carp soon became numerous in the shallow waters of Western Lake Ere.  In 1893, 631,000 pounds went to market; six years later, 3.6 million pounds.”  (pp.164-165)

Today, the only experts who seem to like the Asian carp are Chicago politicians, people dependant on them, or people who already have the carp in their waters like Kentucky.  Some Kentuckians are now extolling the virtues of the Asian carp in their rivers.  The folks at University of Kentucky say Asian carp tastes like tuna and have developed some yummy recipes fit for the finest kitchens.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SNtJo958BM 

Here’s my humble opinion:

·        First, as an engineer, I’m very impressed with the Asian Carp’s “eyes on the bottom” design – obviously designed for sucking algae off the surface – possibly a useful characteristic in Western Lake Erie – but not worth the risk.

·        Second, based on past experience with those wonderful European carp that the governments loved for a while, I’m sure they’ll thrive in Sandusky Bay.

·        Third, based on the large population of European carp that were trapped in East Sandusky Bay and died while spawning when levels temporarily dropped a few years ago, I can imagine the stink we will have from the new, improved and larger Asian version if water levels continue to drop as I expect they will.

In summary, I’ll make a swag (Scientific Wild-Ass Guess) that the new carp are bad news – despite their excellent mechanical design as algae skimmers.  Unfortunately, the ability to make swags seems to been bred out of government scientists of the past decades.  In essence, swag skills have disappeared decades ago along with the demise of slide rules and punch cards.  We now have to study such problems for five years with alphabet soup programs like the Great Lakes and Mississippi River Interbasin Study (GLMRIS) before coming up with a plan.  http://glmris.anl.gov/

Your comments are welcome.  I promise to post any that aren’t nasty rants.  Finally, please remember to buy books and support your local libraries and historical societies.  That’s the only way we can learn from the past, understand past mistakes, avoid future ones and keep our government on the right track.

British Beach Users Want Clean Sand And Clean Water Above All Else

Last year, Ohio’s Office of Coastal management in Sandusky conducted an on-line survey of visitors to Ohio’s North Coast.  The results have not, as yet, been distributed as far as ohiobeachguy knows.

While reviewing some past issues of Shore and Beach, a publication of the American Shore and Beach Preservation Association (ASBPA), ohiobeachguy came across a survey of British beach users which the magazine published in its Winter, 2009 edition.

The survey analyzed the inputs of users at six beaches on the Bristol Channel  The Bristol Channel is similar to Lake Erie in its major dimensions.

The survey was fairly conclusive.  Give us clean water and clean sand and everything else is secondary.  Safety and toilets came in a distant third and fourth.

It will be interesting to see what beach users in Ohio tell the Coastal Management Office.  Hopefully, the results of the Ohio survey will be published this year.

Not on My Beach

As I sit at the computer during yet another blizzard, I can’t help but wonder why I’m here blogging rather than in someplace warm on the deck of a sailboat.  It is clearly the “fault” of a number of people in my past including:

·        The fantastic boss who got me interested in sailing 40 years ago,

·        The many fascinating members of Cleveland Amateur Boatbuilding Society who imported cheap boat kits from England and taught many non-sailors how to build and enjoy beach boats like the Mirror Dingy,

·        The members of the International Fireball Class Association who taught me to build fast boats and to relish sailing flat out,  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgUWxWOMk0I

·        The realtor who convinced me I “needed” an open water landing for my Fireball

·        The neighbors who wanted rocks placed on my landing beach to “fix the erosion problem” caused by Lake Erie’s rising levels of the 80’s and 90’s.

·        The half-dozen like-minded lakefront owners who formed the Ohio Lakefront Group to seek legislative action clarifying that they owned what their deeds said

·        Other property owners throughout the Great Lakes who formed the International Great Lakes Coalition to seek out reasonable controls for the water levels of the Great Lakes.

·        The Cleveland Marshall Law Professor who took no mercy on an aging first year law student and ripped to shreds my first attempt at defining the so-called public trust boundary at the edge of the Lake in 1999.

And here I sit watching it snow.  I no longer naively think that I am no longer naive.  Instead, I realize that there are many unanswered questions, including legal, technical and political ones, which will determine the future of the Great Lakes and the people of the region.  The legal ones, at least in Ohio, will be answered by the Ohio Supreme Court, in the not too distant future.  Hopefully the Court will reach a just solution in a few months based on the thousands of pages of legal briefs.  In addition, there were53 minutes of oral arguments offered for their consideration.  http://supremecourtofohiomedialibrary.org/Media.aspx?fileId=128853

The unanswered technical and political questions are, at this point, of far greater immediate concern.  Of those, the variability and control of lake levels is the greatest long-term threat to Lake Erie.  Excessive and abnormal levels were the root cause of wide-spread public and private property damage in the last part of the 20th century.  Amplifying the damage caused by fluctuating lake levels was the effect of ill-conceived projects meant to protect the shore.

While levels are a long-term concern, a focus on levels should not prevent those of us in Ohio from taking short term actions to repair our public beaches. 

Which Beach Do You Want?

Ohioans have seen many of their beaches disappear over the last 60 years.  I wish I could promise that we can get them back permanently with just a little common sense.  However, shoreline and watershed management is only part of the problem. 

Much of the problem started with unanticipated lake level changes over the past seven decades. At present there is a real and current threat of changes to the St. Clair River which, contrary to government claims, may affect Lake Erie levels.  If levels drop too far on Lake Erie, the marinas and boaters will be in trouble.  If levels rise too far, the beaches are, once again, history.

The following photos are recent shots from the "protected" beach at East Harbor State Park with non-existant sand and the beach which my neighbors and I restored with American Beach Grass at Cedar Point.  In the coming weeks, I'll explain how each location got to the shape it is in today. 

Historic records for each site exist for each site dating to the 1820's.  The mystery of how these two locations could be so radically different is an interesting story. 



East Harbor "Beach"




Cedar Point Beach



 In future posts, we will compare the early history of Cedar Point and East Harbor and explore what we can learn about how the environment was 150 years ago and how it has changed.

For those of you who care more about other areas of Ohio's shoreline, or other lakes, I promise to mix in information about those as well as we go on.  One of my favorite public beaches in Ohio is Lakeview Park in Lorain.  Since the DeLuca's Place in the Park reopens next week, it will be a great time for a visit.  You can check out the beach at http://www.metroparks.cc/lakeview-park.php  I was there last week and the winter has done a number with blowing sand.  We'll deal with that in a later post.

If you need a guide to get around Ohio's Lakeshore, I strongly suggest you pick up a copy of Ohio's Lake Erie Public Access Guidebook.  It is available on-line at the ODNR Coastal Management Website and FREE copies can be picked up at locations listed on the website.
  http://dnr.ohio.gov/Default.aspx?alias=www.dnr.state.oh.us/coastal

If you want to do a little extra credit homework, pick up a copy of Ginger Strand's book entitled Inventing Niagara.  It will give you a preview of where we are going - and she's a much better writer than I am.  There's a New York Times article about the book at: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/books/review/Sullivan-t.html

While you're at it, be sure to support your public libraries.  Much of the information which I have uncovered would have been lost forever without Ohio's wonderful library systems.