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    ANDY KNOTT
March 31, 2009

Lake Michigan levels expected to rise

By MELISSA DOMSIC

TRAVERSE CITY -- Water levels were so high there wasn't much to the beach when Patty DeBaene moved to her East Grand Traverse Bay condominium in 1997.

But within a couple years, the bay began to recede and exposed weedy wetlands.

"I'd prefer the higher levels just because when the children come to visit us they have more places to swim," DeBaene said.

DeBaene and other waterfront property owners likely will see the bay creep deeper this year. Water levels are expected to rise, a reverse of recent years' downward trend.

Lake Michigan water levels stand about a foot higher than they were last March, according to data from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

"We're bouncing back up a little bit from the extremely low level we had two years ago, but we're still not back up to what's considered the long-term average," said Craig Stow, a scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration lab in Ann Arbor.

The lake currently is about 577 feet, 10 inches deep. That's more than 7 inches short of its long-term average for March, but the Corps projects the lake will gain at least another four inches next month, thanks in part to snowmelt runoff into Lake Superior, water that eventually makes its way into lakes Michigan and Huron.

Lake Michigan levels are the same as Lake Huron because the two are connected through the Straits of Mackinac.

Spring rains and snowfall are crucial to boosting lake levels, Stow said. Ice cover also helps by minimizing water lost to evaporation.

"We've had a winter that's colder than the last several," he said. "That will be helpful in the short run. In terms of bringing us back to the long-term average, it takes a couple of years of moderately high precipitation to do that."

Higher lake levels are good for the environment, said Andy Knott, executive director of the Watershed Center Grand Traverse Bay.

"This could have a factor in a lot of different things," he said. "One thought is we'll see less E. coli because there will be more depth along the shore, and less avian botulism, because you'll have deeper, cooler water along the shore."

E. coli and avian botulism tend to flourish in warmer, shallow water.

Some fish habitats should move closer to shore, which is good for certain species, Knott said.

Deeper water also helps the shipping industry, said Stow.

Shippers can't load their vessels as heavily during low water levels or else they could hit the bottom of channels, he said.

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