Dredging... YES!

[Waterfoul]

http://www.wilx.com/news/headlines/Michigan-Senate-Approves-Plan-to-Dredge-Great-Lakes--196007541.html#.UTj3ta11mYc.facebook

I'd rather have more water, but this is a start I guess.

[t-bone]

Keep digging - maybe we will hit a spring!

[Genie]

Wonder if the DNR will get in the way and find a way to screw that up too?

[huston]

Dredging in some places is going to produce water levels dropping in others...... won't it?  I read in the paper today that loans will be out for private and public marinas. I'm sure that will jack up fishing  for awhile in those spots and what about all the canals in LSC where people live? If they can't get dredging, will the little water that's in them  be moving out to the dredged areas. A defined explanation of what  may happen in LSC needs to be explained. Sure Marinas can get there big boats in and out and if the shipping channels are dredged, they can transport more cargo, but what will happen to the small bays and canals? A few years ago   I fished LSC when areas where being dredged and had great fishing around the barge that carried the dredging equipment after the barge sat for a few weeks with no disturbance but when dredging starts, water is jacked for awhile.

[Waterfoul]

Dredging on the whole will NOT effect the water levels in the lakes at all.  They simply don't move enough material overall to even put a dent in the lake levels.

The only way they could effect the already low water levels is if they were to dredge the same channels they dredged several years ago leading into and out of St. Clair... and as far as I know the shipping channels from Port Huron to Lake Erie are still passable.

[LennyB]

I wouldn't think that dredging dead end canals or marinas would not effect the Great Lakes at all, but dredging the shipping channels in the St. Clair and Detroit River probably will. Anytime you make the drain hole bigger, a greater volume of water flows out. Maybe a better option would be to slow the flow going out with wing dams which would cause the level to rise.

[huston]

Most all bodies of water in the south have dams which serve as metering of water and production of electricity. With the level being so low in LSC, talk has been about dredging the channel also. Anchor bay, Belvedere bay. Muscamoot. All these bays are shallow anyway and were great fishing. People live off these bays and canals with boats that have very low water levels.The thaw is coming and I hope we have water.