GVSU official will help study water level drop

A Muskegon scientist has been appointed to an international advisory group studying the steady decline of Great Lakes water levels.

Al Steinman, director of Grand Valley State University's Robert B. Annis Water Resources Institute, has been appointed by the International Joint Commission to a three-year term as a member of its Public Interest Advisory Group. His role is to provide advice and engage public involvement in the commission's Upper Great Lakes Study.

The five-year study will seek to determine whether the regulation of Lake Superior outflows can be improved to address the evolving needs of users on lakes Superior, Huron, Michigan and Erie. Physical changes in the St. Clair River will be investigated early in the study as one factor that might be affecting water levels and flows.

A privately funded study recently concluded that a 1960s dredging project that deepened the shipping corridor through Lake St. Clair inadvertently lowered water levels of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron by as much as 18 inches.

The IJC study will try to corroborate the findings of that study and recommend possible solutions.

Lake Superior's water level is near a record low and the water level of Lake Michigan has dropped nearly 4 feet over the past decade.

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