Recent heavy rainfall not likely to affect lake levels

Thu, Jun 12, 2008    to del.icio.us

HOLLAND — Recent rains are only a drop in the bucket as far as raising Lake Michigan's water level, area officials say.

In fact, recent storms could make some waterways even less navigable by commercial and recreational vessels due to shoaling.

Tom O'Bryan, a civil engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer's Grand Haven Office, said he was worried that mud and silt would be washed into the Lake Macatawa channel so that it would have to be dredged.

"We haven't heard anything yet, and we haven't done a survey, but I expect it washed in quite a bit of the sediment into the channel," he said. "Whether or not it's posing a problem yet, I don't know, because I haven't done a survey and there hasn't been a commercial vessel that has come through since the storm."

About 5 inches of rain fell during a six-hour period that started Saturday, and more storms followed Sunday.

O'Bryan said his office would probably complete a survey of the channel sometime in the next 30 days.

Local shipping enthusiast and Holland City Councilman Bob VandeVusse said he thought damage to the shipping channel would be nominal.

"The channel tends to be toward the middle of the lake," he said. "I expect a lot of the material settled out before it got to the middle of the lake."

VandeVusse said that from what he has seen, debris in the lake is making boating more dangerous for smaller boats.

"Recreational boaters will want to keep a clear look-out as to where they're going," he said.

O'Bryan said the storms' effect on Lake Michigan would be minimal.

"My anticipation is that we'll peak an inch higher than normal due to these storms," O'Bryan said.