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A water level gauge in Essexville that mariners rely on to navigate the Saginaw River will keep pumping out data for the next four years, U.S. Rep. Dale E. Kildee said.
The gauge and 50 others like it make up the Great Lakes Water Level Observation Network, which provides real-time information for safe navigation in the five lakes and their connecting channels.
Kildee, D-Flint, represents southern Bay County, Genesee and Tuscola counties and part of Saginaw County.
Securing money for the network has been a battle over the years, said Helen A. Brohl, executive director of the U.S. Great Lakes Shipping Association, because there's no set appropriation for funding the gauges at the federal level.
Kildee has secured up to $2 million in annual funding for the network by inserting language into a larger bill called the Hydrographic Services Improvement Act, said Kildee spokesman Peter N. Karafotas.
This basically ensures that $2 million in annual funding will be available for the network until fiscal year 2007, Karafotas said. The act is reauthorized every four years; current funding runs out in October.
The U.S. Coast Guard station in Essexville uses the local water level gauge regularly, to help officers ply the waters during patrols and rescues, said Petty Officer Travis Broadway.
"We have to be aware of it at all times, because it lets us know where we can and can't go," Broadway said.
Freighters coming in and out of the river also radio in several times a day for readings, he said.
"It's pretty important because just about every vessel in the Great Lakes is constrained by draft," Broadway said. "We use it just for about everything."
Karafotas said the network is more crucial now than ever, with low water levels in the Great Lakes that jeopardize the integrity of shipping routes. The gauges require more adjustment, maintenance and upgrades due to the low levels, he said.
Since 1997, Lake Michigan has dropped 4.1 feet, the largest drop in that short of a time span since records have been kept, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Lakes Michigan and Huron often are considered one body of water because they are connected by the Straits of Mackinac.
Brohl said her association has had to lobby Congress for Great Lakes network funding for years. It has been lucky enough to get about $2 million a year inserted into appropriations language for the national water level gauge network. But that's not a good strategy for keeping the Great Lakes gauges working, she said.
The Great Lakes Water Level Observation Network is a research program administered by NOAA. Mariners can access gauge readings via the Internet, telephone or Coast Guard.
"It's one of those programs that I think speaks for itself," Brohl said.
Her association represents international cargo vessels, which have to had lighten their loads in recent years due to the low lake levels.
"They live by this stuff," she said. "They live by those six-minute changes in reading. Anybody who knows the lakes knows that in a hour's time, the water can rise or lower a foot."
Ship captains adjust their piloting according to how the water is shifting, she said. In certain places, they literally stop and wait for the water to rise.
Broadway, at the Essexville Coast Guard station, said Saginaw River levels are affected by winds.
About two months ago, strong winds dipped river levels to 38 inches below average, he said. Some freighters stayed in the Saginaw Bay, waiting for the winds to shift. He said the Saginaw River channel is only 25 to 30 feet deep.
"The freighters really aren't far from the bottom when they're coming in with a full load," he said.
Karafotas said Kildee's feat is rare for a Congressmen who isn't in the majority. The hydrographic services act is under the jurisdiction of the Resource Committee, headed by Republican Richard Pombo.
To access Great Lakes water level readings on the Internet, go to glakesonline.nos.noaa.gov. |
