Current lake levels

[Gill-T]

Chris, I posted the info to help the charter captains and the out-of-towners with big boats plan for their launch dates. Depending on the port, some people would not be able to get in their slips with current lake levels. Believe me when I say we are all "optimists" otherwise we would not be discussing going fishing in March. I fished Olcott in January and again in March and can attest the water level did not change from October (down 2 feet based on where the green scum line is on the marina retaining walls. The end of the launch pad has only 4' to spare with my 23' boat.

[Mortigan]

From Friday: http://heraldbulletin.com/breakingnews/x1319120049/Low-levels-in-Great-Lakes-is-bad-news-for-shippers

[Dukdog]

Looks like it could be another season of sanding my prop on the bar coming out of the creek! It wasn't bad when the lake was calm but when the chop was up, I was leaving colored water behind me coming out.

Coming in I could make it on the fly and be OK. Let off when I hit the gap and coasted through unscathed!!

[GAMBLER]

I hope it will come.  We still have snow pack in the Southern tier and Tug hill that has not melted.  Pray for a wet April and May.  I don't mind fishing in the rain if it means the water levels go back to normal. 

[jimski2]

After  eight decades of higher than normal lake levels, normal water levels are not acceptable any more due to a lack of maintenance dreging over the eighty years. We have to accept that "normal levels" will continue into the future and we cannot defer to future maintenance any longer. Maybe an inch of sediment built up every year but after eighty years that is a lot of navigational use lost. The state has collected money from boaters and used it every where they needed votes and now it can not be stolen from the boating community anymore. 

[gokudl3]

Last year this time I was launching my boat at braddocks and driving to long pong for perch. Entering the channel at mouth it was about 1.5' last year. This year it's impassable because the sandbar is above the water line, big bummer because I was really looking foreword to that!

[Misty IV]

http://www.ijc.org/en_/

 

These are the people who control the levels of the lake. There is a battle going on to retain the current water level plan, called 1958DD. The IJC wants to enact a new plan, called BV7, which would cause catastrophic damage to property owners and marinas along the shoreline, especially when there are the major storms out of the north and west. The IJC doesn't seem to care about us, despite every single NYS county along the US side of Lake Ontario rejecting this plan. The politicians in Albany have no idea what they are possibly going to allow. They don't live or work along the lake. They do not have a clue what catastrophic damage will occur if BV7 is allowed to pass. I've attached a link to an article from the Democrat and Chronicle which does a good job of summarizing the issues of this proposed new plan. I have a contact in Oswego who has been following this since day-one when it appeared about 3 years ago. The plan was already shot-down once, yet the IJC is attempting to pass it through again. While parts of the plan sound good (ie. higher lake levels for getting our boats out of channels and into the lake), in the big picture, our marinas would be under water. Properties along the lakeshore would be swept away when the storms hit. I own property along the eastern shore and, comparing the current 1958DD regulated water levels to the proposed BV7 plan, even at the highest water level, a storm's waves will NEVER breach my storm wall and flood out my lakehouse under the current 1958DD plan. With the BV7 plan, a big storm would have the waves crashing on my front lawn, with water running through my living room and out my back door.

 

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20120603/NEWS01/306030049/Water-levels-plan-Lake-Ontario-St-Lawrence-River-sparks-debate?nclick_check=1

[Gill-T]

http://www.dailypress.net/page/content.detail/id/541480/Low-lake-levels-bad-for-shippers.html?nav=5003

[jimski2]

The Port of Los Angeles, CA has complted a ten year dredging program to deepen port facilities from 45 foot depths to 53 foot depths. This is to allow more foreign manufactured products to be imported there. The project was completed by the US Army Corps of Engineers with your tax dollars, yet there is no funds available for our rinky dink harbors.

[Tim Bromund]

There's 8 billion dollars available in a separate fund for just that reason. Anyone that believes this is a funding issue is kidding themselves.

[rolmops]

The Port of Los Angeles, CA has complted a ten year dredging program to deepen port facilities from 45 foot depths to 53 foot depths. This is to allow more foreign manufactured products to be imported there. The project was completed by the US Army Corps of Engineers with your tax dollars, yet there is no funds available for our rinky dink harbors.

It just so happens that the money for these projects comes from fees paid for by commercial shipping companies. I have yet to be charged a docking fee. The launch money does not even cover the wages of the person taking the fee.

[jimski2]

Registration fees for boats and trailers, fuel tax fees especially for the trucks needed to haul boats, sales taxes, fishing licenses, fishing tackle fees, flood control costs for thousands of boats add up to a lot of money not being returned to the people paying them. 

 

We can not wait for Mother Nature to get us out of this predicament. Lake Ontario is regulated but the other lakes feeding Lake Ontario are all below their "normal levels" now. Snow melt and rainfall will take years to help us out.

Edited April 6, 2013 by jimski2

[rolmops]

The sad part of this story is that the dredging was always one of the pet projects of our politicians. Now there is no more pork and no more harbor dredging.

[mostlymuskies]

The Chicago River and Calumet River systems connect Lake Michigan to the Mississppi River,the Chicago Sewer Treatment Plant flows into the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal(Asian Carp Alley) carrying Chicago's treated sewage to the Des Plaines River,where it goes on to the Illinois River,then the Mississippi River.The trouble has been that they have been flowing more water down that trench to keep water levels high enough for barge traffic on the Mississippi River.There are regulations in place to control this flow of water from the Great Lakes,just not being enforced.They are also lowering all lakes and resiviors in NY,PA & Ohio that flow into the Allegheny River & Ohio River drainage to the Mississippi River to keep water levels high enough for barges traveling to Pittsburgh up river.All Pa Army Corps dam controled lakes were lowered down to the lowest levels I have ever seen this past fall.Chautauqua Lake is so low that the Mayville Launch Ramp is dry,your boat actually goes in flat and is hard to get off the trailer,then when reloading on the trailer your bow ends up under the pulpit on your trailer instead of over the pulpit roller.Lime Lake that flows to the Atlantic Ocean out one side and Gulf of Mexico out the other side,has more water flowing out the Gulf of Mexico side! Yes lack of rain & snow pack have dropped Lake Superior almost 5 ft,lowering all the Great Lakes,but flowing water to the Mississippi River at levels above what is allowed is not helping our water levels to come back up.Lake Ontario is low because all the Great Lakes are low and they are going to keep the water flow rates below the Messina Dam at a level to keep the ships moving.Lake Erie water levels are also so low that many launches are only good for smaller boats,parts of Dunkirk Harbor are to shallow to use the docks and Barcelona Harbor may not be deep enough for any bigger boats.At Barcelona the water level is down so low that most boat trailers can't get in deep enough to get your boat off the trailer,be carefull if you go over the ramp end that drops,you will need 3 trucks in tamdem in 4-wheel drive low to get you back out,seen this last week!But what is more alarming is the loss of prime spawning habitat for Great Lakes Strain Muskies in the Buffalo Harbor.Where the fish use to spawn in 3 to 4 ft of water with good weedbeds,those areas are now 1 to 2 ft deep with no aquatic plant growth.Total loss of spawning habitat,hopefully they will spawn somewhere else around Lake Erie!

 

http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2013/04/04/great-lakes-levels-below-normal-next-6-months/#.UWAZpMWcWVU.mailto

Edited April 6, 2013 by mostlymuskies

[jimski2]

Soon we will have more help in our pleas as the state and county sales tax collections will come in showing a big drop as all the out of towners stay away as they have lost their access to the lakes.

[tlox]

Just thankful to have a boat.... shore fishing off my little pier is getting tough with the water levels

[GAMBLER]

I was reading they started holding back some water on April 6th.  With the monsoons we have had the past couple days, the lake should start coming up now. 

[tlox]

over 2" of rain has fallen at my house in the last 2 days with more to come.... all the creeks are swollen as well.  Probably a drop in the bucket when it comes to Lake O but it definitely can't hurt

[Yankee Troller]

Michigan's UP is looking at a foot of snow today also. These rain showers are really slamming the Great Lakes the last few days. Every bit helps!

[Yankee Troller]

http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/data/now/wlevels/plots/ontario.gif

 

At this point last season we already hit the downfall. Right now shes steady climbing. I'm thinking we might do OK.

[jimski2]

Put it another way, it is not the lake level, it is a bottom problem.