Published: July 25, 2009 07:45 pm      

Editorial: As lake levels fluctuate, we can wait and watch

In the late 1980s Lake Michigan was on the move -- up, up. up. Every week, it seemed, water levels rose a little higher.

The lake eventually began consuming lawns, retaining walls, docks and beaches across the region. Structures that had been in place for decades were under water. Anyone who owned a lakefront home was worried that the lawn may not be all they lost.

The rising water ate into dunes along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan from Indiana to Mackinaw City and, in many places, eroded them to the point that houses perched on top were in danger. In southwest Michigan a number of homes tumbled into the lake.

Then one day Lake Michigan stopped rising and, eventually, started to recede. Despite a short-lived spike, cargo ships by the late 1990s were forced to carry substantially lighter loads and marina operators were unable to lease slips. Many communities and private marinas spent tens of thousands to dredge as lake levels fell.

In many low-lying areas, such as the southeast corner of the east arm of Grand Traverse Bay, the water receded so far that by about 2000 the area looked more like wetlands than beach.

Now, the Great Lakes are on the way back up. Lakes Superior, Huron and Michigan have all been on the rise since the fall of 2007, when they neared record lows. Some expect we'll see near-record high-water levels again within a decade.

If we have learned anything in the past 25 years it is that the lakes are going to follow cycles we can't predict or control or, beyond building a few retaining walls, do much about. And we shouldn't try.

In 1938 or so, lakes Michigan and Huron -- which are, hydrologically, considered a single lake -- hit a near-record low. By about 1950 the lakes were at a near-record high. Right around 1965 the lakes were at their lowest level since records were first kept in the 1860s.

Anyone who relied on lake levels at any of those points in time as a basis for building -- be it a marina, a house or a road -- was in for a rude awakening. Portions of M-22 in Leelanau County were nearly submerged in the late 80s; the troubles of hotels and motels along East Bay have been well documented.

It's the same old lesson learned again: It's not nice -- or smart -- to fool with Mother Nature.