Posted on 02/07/2004 9:24:46 AM PST by cebadams
Edited on 05/07/2004 7:13:20 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
Kerry doesn't have a clue about the Great Lakes--especially if he thinks we're going to give up our water without a HUGE fight. He was probably all for making Lake Champlain a Great Lake, too.
Lake Superior dropped a bit in 2003 compared with 2002, but ice cover, lower temperatures and increasing precipitation are generally bringing the Great Lakes up from low water levels.Lake Superior started 2003 about 7 inches below the long-term normal for January and ended the year about 9 inches below normal for December. Those numbers are not out of the statistical norm and near the level listed on navigation charts.
Last fall's storms in the region and recent snowfall from storms that started outside the region -- not just lake-effect snow -- also add encouragement for coming months and a return to more normal temperatures.
Lakes Huron and Michigan began 2003 about 20 inches below normal for January and ended the year 18 inches low for December, about the same as 2002. Lakes Erie and Ontario closed the gap about 2 inches toward normal.
"There has been a significant improvement on Michigan and Huron... and that's because we had reduced evaporation," Marie Strum, chief of the watershed hydrology branch of the Corps, said Monday. "We had a very extensive ice cover last winter and that remained until early spring, which kept the water temperatures lower."
The latest decline in lake levels began about 1997, said Cynthia Sellinger, a hydrologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Great Lakes Environmental Research lab. Sellinger said it may take years for the lakes to all return to average levels.
This is an outstanding catch - thank you for this. It's just as big an issue here in the northern part of Minnesota. Of course, just one problem with the concept of selling water has to do with much of the Great Lakes adjoining Canada. Whose water is it, anyway?
Thanks for this post. Bumping and bookmarking.
That Lake Champlain issue was met with a lot of sneers here in MI, but it certainly would add fuel to this fire.
Grahnholm's Canadian butt is in the sling. She's made it well know she's going after groundwater quality and increased enforcement of drainfield and septic tank inspections, and now this? This is an issue the voters here won't let her gloss over.
This appeared in a 3/09/04 interview with Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D, of course):
Q: Great Lakes water diversion. Sen. Kerry's response seemed to leave doors open. What's your reaction and have you talked to his campaign?
A: Oh yes. First of all, no candidate can come into Michigan without being very strong on the issue of diversion. There's no way, no how, will any candidate come into Michigan and survive if they're interested in diverting water. John Kerry issued a statement immediately following that which said no way, no how, over my dead body will I allow diversion out of the Great Lakes, the day following, that was on a Friday I remember it very well. I was pleased to see he issued that statement.
Q: Does that settle the issue?
A: It should settle the issue because he's made very clear that he does not believe that Great Lakes water should be diverted under any circumstances. I would not be endorsing a candidate who equivocated on that.
The entire article can be found here:
http://www.freep.com/news/politics/egran9_20040309.htm
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