http://www.nandotimes.com/nation/story/0,1038,500163478-500206623-500944400-0,00.html

Officials predict low levels for Great Lakes in summer Copyright ) 2000 Nando Media Copyright ) 2000 Associated Press

DETROIT (February 4, 2000 11:18 a.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com) - The water in lakes Michigan, Huron and Erie sank to their lowest levels in decades in 1999 - and even worse may be on tap for the summer of 2000.

Federal forecasts predict the level in the three Great Lakes could drop as much as 10 inches below last year's lows.

Already, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has received 225 dredging requests, well above last year's pace.

"Water levels are the hot issue right now. But just wait until spring," said Michael J. Donahue, director of the Great Lakes Commission, a policy group that advises state and federal officials. "It's going to get hotter as soon as people try to put their boats in the water."

During last year, there were 1,000 dredging projects along Michigan's coasts - more than twice that of the previous year.

Already this winter, several Detroit-area communities have applied for dredging permits, including Grosse Pointe, St. Clair Shores, Grosse Pointe Farms and Grosse Pointe Shores.

"We have to do something," said Dick Huhn, director of parks and recreation in Grosse Pointe Farms, a wealthy suburb that maintains a lakeside park with its own 281-slip marina. "People have been running aground. If we don't dredge, we think we'll lose 50 percent of those boat slips."

But there is a problem with so much dredging: Many sites where dredging takes place are polluted.

At least 30 sites along the Detroit River's bottom are polluted with heavy metals such as lead, nickel and cadmium, farm pesticides including DDT and toxophene, and diesel fuel, according to federal studies.

In addition, officials said there isn't much space inside confined disposal facilities, the storage areas where polluted dredge has to be deposited by law.

The water level in the three lakes is expected to drop because of a warm, dry winter that kept ice from forming until recently. Without the ice cover, water can evaporate from lake surfaces.

"This is the third year in a row with little or late ice cover on the Great Lakes. That's highly unusual," said Roger L. Gauthier, the Corps of Engineers' supervisory hydrologist in Detroit. "These lakes are really, really low. The only thing going to change that is an extremely wet spring."

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Is there any doubt that 6,000,000,000 and counting is causing major climate changes throughout the world? BTW remember how just a short while ago the media was trumpeting passing the 6 billion mark. The census bureau has a counter and its already up to: U.S. 274,201,853 World 6,042,559,312

-- Guy Daley (guydaley@bwn.net), February 05, 2000

Answers

Here is the source of much of our worlds air pollution:

Hundreds of millions of Chinese 25 years ago cooked and heated with twigs that they collected.

After 25 years of growing affluence, those same Chinese along with their next generation now can afford to buy and burn coal. And they now burn a tremendous amount of coal.

The pollution from that coal burning is in the atmosphere all the way around the globe. These are the true pollutants, the greenhouse gases, and it is the dirtest source of energy, if not properly controlled.

We have fought hard to clean our air in the U.S. and at the same time the Chinese standard of living has risen and brought with it more coal burning pollution than we ever could have conceived possible.

-- snooze button (alarmclock_2000@yahoo.com), February 05, 2000.

Last summer I read an article, in believe in USA Today, which talked about the low water level in the Great Lakes. Apparently, the Great Lakes have been in an abnormally high water level cycle and has been for the last thirty years. What the lakes are experiencing now is the normal levels. They stated that this is the way it will stay. I've lost a good 30 feet of our creek behind the house. Maybe 20 feet left of water. So much for waterfront property.

-- Trish (adler2@webtv.net), February 05, 2000.

Good article. 6 Billion is a tragedy in the making. Ck out dieoff.org/page55.htm

Also DESIP is a good site on population.

-- gilda (jess@listbot.com), February 05, 2000.

"Is there any doubt that 6,000,000,000 and counting is causing major climate changes throughout the world?"

It isn't the entire 6 billion that is producing the climate change, but rather 20% of the 6 billion. The MDC's, or More "Developed" Countries" represent 1.2 billion of the population (one fifth) and are producing 99% of the world's pollution, while the LDC's, or Less "Developed" Countries, represent 4.8 billion of the population and are producing almost no unnatural pollution. So you could kill of 4/5 of the world's population and still have no reduction in pollution. It isn't the population that is the cause of the problem, it is the so-called "more developed" technology of the industrialized nations.

-- Hawk (flyin@high.again), February 06, 2000.

Talking to my sister-in-law in Laramie just this morning, she mentioned the MedicineBow had 70% of the normal snow pack, the water table was low, they're hoping for spring precips to bring things back up.

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), February 06, 2000.