Water Levels in Great Lakes Keep Rising

[Kevbeau]

Activate the Carp Signal

Edited June 15, 2019 by Kevbeau

[ExiledInIllinois]

3 minutes ago, Johnny Hammersticks said:

Simple.  There’s been a lot of rain.  The lakes are high.  No need for quantum thermodynamics here.

 

What impact, if any, will this have on the Asian carp population?

None.  Asian carp sky is falling theory has been going on since 2009.  Where are they.

 

It's not the rain.  We have had a surplus... But Lake elevations have been building since the hard freeze of 2014.  Cleaner water also freezes better. Less evaporation.

 

Back to Asian carp. It's at low water that the silver carp tend to jump at.  If anything, during high water, they may escape via different routes.  Like through Indiana @ Fort Wayne to Maumee/Toledo and L.Erie... There are other avenues from the Ohio and Wabash rivers...

[BringBackFergy]

4 minutes ago, ExiledInIllinois said:

 

Yes they can.  Next thing you'll tell me that when you take a dump and flush... The new toilet water is just as dirty as before the flush.

 

And it's really a "controlling works" because it acts just like the toilet in your house.  It's just a big azz one.

 

We would flush more water, dilute even more... But Illinois is bound by SCOTUS rulings going back over 100 years to NOT to divert more than ~4,000 cfs (cubic feet per second).  There you have it, the original "low flow" water closet.

 

Anyway... Back to original topic.  The Great Lakes are over flowing because winters have been more severe since 2014.  The more ice cover on Michigan-Huron & Erie supress Lake temps... So as during the main evaporation months of July and August there is less evaporation that falls outside the basin.  Rate of water accumulation beats the rate of abatement.  Which means more net water gain than goes out over the Niagara Falls and through Chicago for the middle three lakes.

Here’s an idea: Let the river flow! (Carly Simon). What can it hurt? If people weren’t smart enough to build back from the river, let Mom Nature run her course. 

[ExiledInIllinois]

11 minutes ago, BringBackFergy said:

Here’s an idea: Let the river flow! (Carly Simon). What can it hurt? If people weren’t smart enough to build back from the river, let Mom Nature run her course. 

We can't.  EDIT: "Can't" is wrong word.  We MAY not. It's breaking the law.  SCOTUS 1969 (and prior, '69 one of the latest) ruling only allows ~4,000 cfs to be released at Chicago.  That's why there are two controlling works.  One @ Chicago Harbor (Navy Pier) and the other where I am on SouthSide.

 

I can easy open both ends of the lock.  We are built for that.  A normal mitre gate lock can't, the pressure holds gates shut.  We have sector gates, can open against the pressure of the head.  We open both for the USCG during emergency runs.  There is a 6 foot wave now.

 

The law that governs is:

 

USC 33 CFR $ 207.425

 

The lower canal has to be maintained to this because we would be diverting too much water to the Gulf of Mexico.

 

Even a full breach of Lock & Dam would not flood people under normal conditions.  Lockport Lock & Dam would just hold back another 5-6 feet.  The levee around the holds to well over 10 feet.

Edited June 15, 2019 by ExiledInIllinois

[BringBackFergy]

2 minutes ago, ExiledInIllinois said:

We can't.  It's breaking the law.  SCOTUS 1969 ruling only allows ~4,000 cfs to be released at Chicago.  That's why there are two controlling works.  One @ Chicago Harbor (Navy Pier) and the other where I am on SouthSide.

 

I can easy open both ends of the lock.  We are built for that.  A normal mitre gate lock can't, the pressure holds gates shut.  We have sector gates, can open against the pressure of the head.  We open both for the USCG during emergency runs.  There is a 6 foot wave now.

 

The law that governs is:

 

USC 33 CFR $ 207.425

 

The lower canal has to be maintained to this because we would be diverting too much water to the Gulf of Mexico.

 

Have you ever gone over 55 mph on a thruway?? Same idea. Let a little more water through the gates. Those 80 yr old geriatrics will never know. 

[ExiledInIllinois]

Just now, BringBackFergy said:

Have you ever gone over 55 mph on a thruway?? Same idea. Let a little more water through the gates. Those 80 yr old geriatrics will never know. 

Yes.  If you notice the pic above... We are outside the law. The lower pool is too low.  What you're suggesting is going 125 in a 55.

 

That pic above is like 65 in a 55.

[BringBackFergy]

1 minute ago, ExiledInIllinois said:

Yes.  If you notice the pic above... We are outside the law. The lower pool is too low.  What you're suggesting is going 125 in a 55.

 

That pic above is like 65 in a 55.

Criminal!!!!! Reported!!!!

[ExiledInIllinois]

 

There is a water allowance.  We are running dam as we speak.  We can divert water through the chamber: 1,000'x110'... Old Panamax.  We also have 4 sluice gates on the dam (controlling works)... Those can raise 10 feet high... "40 feet" total across.

 

The wicket dams at Peoria and Beardstown are most likely down and boats are going over dam. Asian carp spawn.  They need 60+ miles of dam free river. 

13 minutes ago, BringBackFergy said:

Criminal!!!!! Reported!!!!

That's a draw down because we expect rain.  Totally within the wording of the law.  Read the link.  It's published through Cornell Law School, the link I used.

Edited June 15, 2019 by ExiledInIllinois

[ExiledInIllinois]

 

On another note.  The more they dredge deep at Sarnia-Port Huron at mouth of L.Huron/head of St.Clair River... Dredge deep into the bedrock... More water is released down the St.Clair, through detroit and into Erie.

 

Food for thought.  It's like filling your bathroom sink basin up over the emergency overflow only to blast more of that hole lower. More will go down the drain through the straits and into Erie.

Edited June 15, 2019 by ExiledInIllinois

[LeGOATski]

And the dessert is getting wetter.

 

[ExiledInIllinois]

2 minutes ago, LeGOATski said:

And the dessert is getting wetter.

 

You messing with Me? LMAO!

 

Where the hell did this @LeGOATski guy come from!  He's bringing his A-game and all-stars like @Cripple Creek & @CountryCletus are going 0-fer.

 

I like your style!  

[Buffalo_Gal]

They could turn on the spigot from Lake Ontario to the St Lawrence Seaway  instead of letting the marshes fill naturally to "protect wildlife".  ?‍♀️

[ExiledInIllinois]

10 minutes ago, Buffalo_Gal said:

They could turn on the spigot from Lake Ontario to the St Lawrence Seaway  instead of letting the marshes fill naturally to "protect wildlife".  ?‍♀️

But that's been the problem with L.Ontario the last few decades! It is the one Lake that stays static elevation-wise... Because of the slack water, locks & dams system built in 1959.

 

All the Lakes need to go through this high-low water cleanse cycle.  Ontario needs to go high, fill in marshes.  Smallies, monster ones are going insane where I work.  The high water habitat flooded the reeds, grasses, couple that with the man-made structure and they are gobbling up small prey!  Bass love invasives like round gobies!

 

For years they kept Ontario elevation static because of low water and to maintain the draft needed for the salties to come up The St.Lawrence. What made Toronto, killed Buffalo.  26 foot project depth is not an issue now. Let Ontario fill up with what Superior, Michigan-Huron, & Erie are giving it!   

 

"...Lake Huron rolls, superior sings
In the rooms of her ice-water mansion
Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams
The islands and bays are for sportsmen

And farther below lake Ontario
Takes in what lake Erie can send her..."

[ExiledInIllinois]

 

I betcha they are really screaming bloody muder on Georgian Bay... The Niagara Escarpment goes under L.Huron at the mouth of the bay.  Georgian Bay is like another basin off of Huron... All that water pouring in.  From 2000-2014 the docks were jutting out into beach.  Now all that added property has to be under water!

 

I haven't looked it up... But Michigan-Huron is up 5.5 FEET in last 5 years.  That's a hell of tide on geography that slopes only a few feet ovet hundreds of yards!

[Gray Beard]

5 minutes ago, ExiledInIllinois said:

 

I betcha they are really screaming bloody muder on Georgian Bay... The Niagara Escarpment goes under L.Huron at the mouth of the bay.  Georgian Bay is like another basin off of Huron... All that water pouring in.  From 2000-2014 the docks were jutting out into beach.  Now all that added property has to be under water!

 

I haven't looked it up... But Michigan-Huron is up 5.5 FEET in last 5 years.  That's a hell of tide on geography that slopes only a few feet ovet hundreds of yards!

When the lake effect snow comes from Georgian Bay, Utica and Syracuse get clobbered. I wish they could drain that part of the lake. 

[ExiledInIllinois]

Just now, Gray Beard said:

When the lake effect snow comes from Georgian Bay, Utica and Syracuse get clobbered. I wish they could drain that part of the lake. 

Yeah... Because thats the fetch of the Bay pointed right at Syracuse and then added with Ontario.

 

Geologically the Bay is a spill over from Huron.  The Niagara Escarpment goes under water there and pops up again rounding and impounding Huron and L.Michigan all the way down through Door County, Green Bay into Lower Wisconsin:

 

 

[Marv's Neighbor]

This is what makes the world go round.  It's not just a Great Lakes "problem."   Weather has Always been cyclical, and really is uncontrolled by all the hand wringers..

 

Last year central Europe had a very dry Spring/Summer.  That dropped the water levels in the Danube, Maine, and to a lesser extent the Rhine.  This year, mostly back to normal, to above normal levels.  Really screwed up the river cruise business with the low water.  The controlling river authority(s) closed portions of the rivers, at various times.

 

Passau Germany sits at the confluence of three rivers, and had the worst floods in 500 years, in 2013.  Last year high and dry, this year back to normal.  All these rivers are controlled by a series of locks to facilitate barge transportation, and to a lesser extent river cruise ships but there's only so much of nature that ever really gets "controlled."  At least Passau had the benefit of 500+ years of weather/river data to compare.  While We're still falling back on geology to try to figure it out.

[LeGOATski]

3 hours ago, ExiledInIllinois said:

You messing with Me? LMAO!

 

Where the hell did this @LeGOATski guy come from!  He's bringing his A-game and all-stars like @Cripple Creek & @CountryCletus are going 0-fer.

 

I like your style!  

Vaguely on/off topic is how I like to roll.

[/dev/null]

 

[Gugny]

4 hours ago, ExiledInIllinois said:

Cleaner water also freezes better. Less evaporation.

 

This makes no sense.  How does polluted water increase evaporation????!!!!