augmented by that from the lake or lakes situated upstream in the chain on the average, the discharge from Lake Superior constitutes about 30 percent of the total supply of water to Lakes Michigan and Huron; the discharge from Lake Erie, about 80 percent of the total supply to Lake Ontario. The five major lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, with their connecting rivers and Lake St. Clair-have a water surface area above the head of the St. Lawrence River of about 95,000 square miles. The total area of the Great Lakes Basin, both land and water, is approximately 295,000 square miles. On this total area about 59 percent is situated in the United States and the remainder 41 percent-is in Canada. The lakes and connecting waters form one of the greatest inland water transportation systems in the world. The steamer track distance from Duluth, Minn., to Ogdensburg, N.Y., is 1,216 miles long. Because of ice, the navigation season is limited to about 8 months, from April through November. During this shortened season, the U.S. and foreign commerce amounts to more than 200 million tons annually. The lakes serve not only as a transportation medium but also as a source of water for domestic and industrial use, and as a major recreation area. The area surrounding the lakes has become the industrial heartland of the United States. Starting with Lake Superior and working downstream, the physical situation is as follows: There are two separate projects, the Long Lake and Ogoki power developments, which divert water into the Great Lakes system. Since 1945 these diversions into Lake Superior from Canada have averaged about 5,000 cubic feet per second. Water is diverted from Lake Michigan at Chicago primarily for sanitary purposes. This diversion is made up of the 1,500 cubic feet per second authorized by the Supreme Court decree of 1930 and domestic pumpage. Since 1938 the total diversion has averaged about 3,100 cubic feet per second. The drop from Lake Superior level through the St. Marys River to Lake Huron is about 21.6 feet. The levels and outflows from Lake Superior are regulated by means of power and navigation canals and a gated dam at Sault Ste. Marie. The outflows have been controlled completely since 1922. Because of the broad and deep Straits of Mackinac connection between Lakes Michigan and Huron, the two lakes are at virtually the same level. The drop from Lake Huron to Lake Erie through the St. ClairDetroit River system is about 8.4 feet. Compensation works, consisting of dikes that constrict the river channel, have been placed in the Detroit River to offset the effect on levels upstream of the navigation enlargements. Enlargement of the St. Clair River for 25-foot navigation during 1933-36 and the work accomplished for 27-foot navigation during 1958-62, lower the levels of Lakes Michigan and Huron a total of 0.26 foot or 3% inches as a feature of the 27-foot project, submerged sills are to be placed in the deepwater portion of the river near Lake Huron to offset this effect. Model studies are in progress at the Corps of Engineers Waterways Experiment Station to determine the best location and arrangement of the sills to accomplish the purpose. The drop from Lake Erie level to Lake Ontario is about 326 feet. There are non-Federal hydroelectric power developments on the Cana dian and United States sides of the Niagara River which take water from above Niagara Falls and return it downstream of the falls. The 1950 treaty between the United States and Canada established requirements for flows over the falls and required that remedial works be constructed in the Niagara River above the falls to preserve and enhance their beauty. These improvements assure that Lake Erie levels and outflows are unaffected by power diversions from the river and that the scenic spectacle is preserved. The Welland Canal, situated in Canada, permits navigation to bypass Niagara Falls. Since 1950 the total diversion through this canal for power and navigation has averaged about 7,000 cubic feet per second. The drop from Lake Ontario level to the Atlantic Ocean is 245 feet. Power developments of the Province of Ontario and the State of New York are situated on the St. Lawrence River at Barnhart Island, about 106 miles downstream from Lake Ontario, and another power development, by the Province of Quebec, is located downstream in Canada. Works of the Federal seaway agencies of Canada and the United States provide a 27-foot navigation channel through the river between Lake Ontario and the Canadian 35-foot project at Montreal. The levels and outflow of Lake Ontario have been regulated since 1960 in connection with the St. Lawrence Seaway and power projects. In the material distributed to each member earlier will be found photographs of the St. Marys River, Niagara River, and St. Lawrence River developments. Senator HART. Colonel, may I indicate that following your statement, unless there is objection, the materials that you refer to will be reproduced in the record. RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE CORPS OF ENGINEERS IN THE GREAT LAKES AREA Colonel PINNELL. In the Great Lakes area, as in all other parts of the United States, the Corps of Engineers has been charged with the primary responsibility for planning, constructing, operating, and maintaining Federal improvements for navigation, flood control, and related purposes in cooperation with other Federal and non-Federal interests. The corps is also responsible for the administration of laws for the preservation and protection of navigable waters of the United States. In addition, certain special responsibilities pertaining to the Great Lakes area only have been assigned to the corps or its representatives. Under its normal procedures for civil works improvements, the corps is progressively improving and maintaining the connecting channels between the Great Lakes to meet the needs of deep-draft commercial shipping; except between Lakes Erie and Ontario where the connection is provided by the Canadian Welland Canal. The corps has also provided, maintains, and is progressively improving an extensive system of commercial harbors, recreational harbors, and harbors of refuge on the U.S. shores of the lakes; has provided, is improving, and operates the canalized Illinois Waterway which forms a connecting link between the Mississippi River navigation system and the Great Lakes; has constructed a number of flood control improvements throughout the U.S. portion of the Great Lakes Basin; and operates a hydroelectric powerplant on the St. Marys River at Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. Also the corps, pursuant to various directives from Congress, now has underway a large number of investigations in order to determine the advisability of further Federal improvements in the Great Lakes Basin. Of particular interest in connection with this hearing is a broad study of water levels of the Great Lakes. One phase of this study is to determine the feasibility of a plan for further regulation that will best serve the interests of all water uses, including the reduction of damage to shore properties, the use of the lakes and connecting waterways for navigation, and the use of the outflows from the lakes for power production. An interim report covering the regulation phase of this broad study is scheduled for completion by our field offices this calendar year. Another current investigation which may be of interest to this committee involves a study of the advisability of constructing a new deep-draft waterway on the U.S. side of the international boundary connecting Lakes Erie and Ontario to supplement the Canadian Welland Canal. Special responsibilities of the Corps of Engineers in the Great Lakes area include the publication of navigation charts of the lakes and their connecting waterways and the continuing study and accumulation of basic data pertaining to the hydraulics and hydrology of the lakes, including those relating to levels and outflows. Representatives of the corps also serve on international engineering or control boards dealing with Great Lakes matters. THE WATER LEVEL SITUATION Water levels in the Great Lakes depend primarily on such natural hydrologic processes as precipitation, runoff, and evaporation. Large or protracted variations from normal in such processes result in corresponding changes in the net amounts of water supplied to the lakes, with consequent periods of abnormally high or abnormally low water levels. In addition, during any year the lake levels ordinarily follow a rather definite seasonal pattern in response to normal seasonal variations in hydrologic phenomena, with the low for the year taking place during the winter months and the high occurring during the summer. The long-range trends and seasonal cycles, in the lake levels that have occurred during the period of record, are shown on the hydrograph of monthly mean levels of the Great Lakes included in the handout and on this large chart. Such charts make it clear that the levels of the lakes swing from low to high, and back to low again in a never-ending succession; that the fluctuation of lake levels is as much a phenomenon of nature as is the swing of the pendulum. The extremes of recorded levels for each lake, the dates of their occurrence, and the range between such extremes also are shown on tabulation No. 1 of the handout. From that tabulation it can be seen that the greatest variation in levels-6.6 feet-has occurred on Lakes Michigan-Huron and Ontario, and the least-3.9 feet on Lake Superior. As can be observed from the hydrograph of lake levels, there has been a marked downward trend in the levels of Lakes MichiganHuron since 1960 and in the levels of Lake Erie since 1961. Senator HART. Perhaps Mr. Lawhead could indicate this. I am trying to find out whether on the Michigan-Huron chart the low level reflected at the end of the graph is the lowest ever recorded. Mr. LAWHEAD. This is the lowest ever recorded. The light black line on each of these charts represents the recorded low in the 104 years. That for Superior, this for Michigan-Huron, Erie, and Ontario. The heavier black line represents the long-term average level, the average level of the whole 104 years. Senator HART. Do I read this correctly then, that in the case of Lakes Huron and Michigan, from your caption I take it you treat them as one lake, that we are now at the lowest level for those two lakes? Mr. LAWHEAD. That is right. Senator HART. That in the case of Erie we are not as low as we were in the mid-1930's? Mr. LAWHEAD. 1934–35. Senator HART. Is that the lowest recorded there? Mr. LAWHEAD. The alltime low. Senator HART. And in the case of Ontario what year was the low? Mr. LAWHEAD. That was November 1934 for Ontario. Senator HART. When we hear the expressions of concern about low level, in Michigan-Huron it is indeed as low as it has ever been. Mr. LAWHEAD. That is correct. Senator HART. In these other lakes this is not the case. Senator HART. All right. Colonel PINNELL. While this marked downward trend for Lakes Michigan-Huron and Lake Erie is apparent, not so apparent are the lesser downward trends on Lakes Superior and Ontario. These trends are generally paralleled by recent precipitation trends in the lake basins. On tabulation No. 2 are shown the departures from normal precipitation that have occurred during the period from January 1961 through June 1964. Deficiencies in precipitation have accumulated in each lake basin, with the greatest deficiencies in the Lake Michigan and Lake Erie Basins. Also included in the material before you will be found a copy of the Monthly Bulletin of Lake Levels for June 1964. This shows, in graphical form, recent lake levels and the probable levels for the next 6 months as compared to long-term average levels and extreme high and low levels of record. Supplementing the bulletin is tabulation No. 3 which shows a comparison of the June 1964 lake levels with the long-term average levels for June and with the low-water datum for each lake. Last June 1964, the levels of all lakes were below the long-term averages for that month, but only the Lakes Michigan-Huron level was below the low-water datum, the deficiency here being 0.9 foot. Since the lake level data are from recorded values, they include the effects of the artificial factors affecting lake levels which have been introduced from time to time as well as the effects of natural processes. The effects of certain significant artificial factors; namely, the Long Lake and Ogoki diversions, the Chicago diversion, the Welland Canal diversion, and the as yet uncompensated navigation improvements of the St. Clair River, are shown on tabulation No. 4 of the handout. The combined net effect of these factors is to lower the levels of Lakes Michigan-Huron about 0.22 foot-25% inches-and to lower the levels of Lake Erie about 0.23 foot-234 inches. For perspective, it may be noted that the June 1964 level of Lakes Michigan-Huron involved a deviation from the long-term average level for June of 3.3 feet, of which 0.22 foot, or less than 7 percent, is attributable to the effects of these artificial factors. Senator HART. May I just comment here for purposes of the record, the diversion which has created, I think, the greatest controversy and which has been cited so often as the villain for low lake levels is the diversion authorized at Chicago. I read your tabulation No. 4 to indicate that the effect of the diversion at Chicago on MichiganHuron is 234 inches, a drop of 234 inches. Colonel PINNELL. This is correct, sir. The level is 234 inches lower today. Senator HART. Because of the Chicago diversion. Colonel PINNELL. Because of the Chicago diversion. Senator HART. Because of the diversion at Chicago. I should introduce Mr. Foster, our counsel here, who wonders if we understand correctly the tabulation. Is the diversion computed as 234 inches for Michigan-Huron and 15% inches for Erie your assessment of the water loss because of the Chicago diversion, or of the several diversions that you have enumerated in your statement? Colonel PINNELL. The tabulation No. 4, sir, shows four categories of artificial or manmade factors which have changed these levels. The 234-inch figure to which you allude for the Chicago diversion is the effect on Lake Michigan-Huron of that single factor. The combined effect on Lake Michigan-Huron of all these artificial factors is shown in the last column, which is a net reduction of 25% inches in Michigan-Huron. Senator HART. Absent the diversion at Chicago, the factors would reduce Michigan-Huron by only a quarter of an inch; is that right? Colonel PINNELL. In the absence of the Chicago diversion, sir, the level would be, as I interpret this, one-eighth inch higher than current. Senator HART. One-eighth inch higher. This is the combined net effect. Colonel PINNELL. Yes, sir. You see, we have an input from the Ogoki-Long Lake diversions-we sall them diversions, they are actually inputs-which is a net inflow of 5,000 cubic feet per second, whereas at Chicago we are losing 3,100 cubic feet per second. Senator HART. I think this comment will make very clear the tabulation for the record. EFFECTS ON VARIOUS INTERESTS Colonel PINNELL. Marinas and private small-boat docks, particularly those on Lakes Michigan, Huron, and St. Clair are suffering from the present low levels in varying degrees ranging from minor inconvenience to situations where docks are unusable. |