No simple solution for Great Lakes Water losses greater than thought, new study claims

Two new studies have thrown everything we thought we knew about the missing water of the Great Lakes into question, again. As often happens in big environmental conundrums, ordinary citizens are left wondering helplessly which computer model to believe. And any measure that helps one part of the lakes is pretty much guaranteed to do harm to others up or downstream. The lakes hold one-fifth of the world's fresh surface water. In the late 1990s, water levels fell sharply in Lakes Huron and Michigan, which are joined at the north end. Docks and harbours were suddenly high and dry, and plants invaded former sand beaches. Residents blamed dredging in the St. Clair River, which drains Lake Huron to the south. Too much dredging to let the big freighters through sucks out water, they claimed, like a bathtub with too big a drain.  link