ONEKAMA, Mich. (AP) -
For more than a century, easy access to Lake
Michigan has made Onekama a popular place for summer visitors and a
refuge for boaters fleeing dangerous storms. Now the community itself
needs a rescue, from slumping lake levels that threaten its precious
link to open water.
The Great Lakes, the
world's biggest freshwater system, are shrinking because of drought and
rising temperatures, a trend that accelerated with this year's almost
snowless winter and scorching summer. Water levels have fallen to
near-record lows on Lakes Michigan and Huron, while Erie, Ontario and
Superior are below their historical averages. The decline is causing
heavy economic losses, with cargo freighters forced to lighten their
loads, marinas too shallow for pleasure boats and weeds sprouting on
exposed bottomlands, chasing away swimmers and sunbathers.
Some of the greatest
suffering is in small tourist towns that lack the economic diversity of
bigger port cities. Yet they are last in line for federal money to
deepen channels and repair infrastructure to support the boating traffic
that keeps them afloat.
"How do you like our mud
bog?" Township Supervisor Dave Meister asked on a recent afternoon,
gesturing toward the shoreline of Portage Lake, part of a 2,500-acre
inland waterway that connects the town to Lake Michigan. A wide expanse
that normally would be submerged is now an ugly patchwork of puddles,
muck and thick stands of head-high cattails. A grounded pontoon boat
rested forlornly alongside a deserted dock.
The Army Corps of Engineers
has estimated that about 30 small Great Lakes harbors will need
attention in the next couple of years.
In bygone days, friendly
members of Congress would slip money into the federal budget to dredge a
harbor. But so-called earmarks have fallen out of favor, leaving
business and civic leaders wondering where to turn. A desperate few are
raising money locally for dredging but insist they can't afford it on a
regular basis.
Tourism has sustained
Onekama since the early 1900s, when northwestern Michigan coastal towns
became popular with wealthy visitors from Chicago, Milwaukee and
Detroit. On a typical summer day, the community's marinas are crowded
with yachts, speedboats and fishing charters.
But the falling water
levels are taking a toll, illustrating how extensively the health of the
Great Lakes affects the economy of a region that is home to more than
30 million people extending from Minnesota to New York.
Lake Michigan's level at
the end of October was more than 2 feet below its long-term average. The
Corps of Engineers says without heavy snowfall this winter, the lake
may decline to its lowest point since record-keeping began in 1918.
The channel that connects
Portage Lake and Lake Michigan is now about 7 feet deep at best. When
the water is choppy, some vessels can hit bottom. If things get much
worse, Onekama may be effectively cut off from the big lake.
"Businesses would close.
People would be laid off. It would be devastating," said Jim Mrozinski,
owner of Onekama Marine Inc., which services and stores pleasure craft
and draws customers from across the Upper Midwest. He owns three
marinas, one now unusable because of shallow water. If he's lucky, the
others will have enough depth to rent perhaps 10 of the 55 slips next
spring.
Onekama's year-round
population is less than 2,000. Much of its tax base comes from expensive
waterfront homes owned by summer residents who come for the boating and
fishing. Without the link to Lake Michigan, property values would
plummet, hammering local government budgets, Meister said.
"You're talking about schools, 911 emergency, library, fire protection - everything," he said.
Many places around the
Great Lakes are having similar problems. At least a dozen boats have run
aground this year in Lake Ontario around the harbor in Orleans County,
N.Y. The state of Wisconsin warned boaters to watch for stumps, boulders
and other hazards lurking just beneath the water. Boat-towing services
have done brisk business rescuing stranded craft in newly shallow
stretches of Lake Erie.
What makes the situation
particularly frustrating for small Great Lakes communities is that a
fund for dredging and other harbor maintenance already exists. It's
generated by a tax on freight shipped at U.S. ports and raises about
$1.5 billion a year. But about half of the money is diverted to the
treasury for other uses. Members of Congress from coastal states are
pushing to change that policy.
Even if the effort
succeeds, there's no guarantee that communities like Onekama will get a
share of the cash. The Corps of Engineers gives top priority to large
ports such as Duluth, Minn., Detroit and Cleveland. Whatever is left
goes to medium-sized harbors that also accommodate cargo ships. The
region's 112 small harbors, including 71 with only recreational traffic,
have relied on budget earmarks since the 1990s.
"Many of these towns
wouldn't exist if it wasn't for their ports," said Mike O'Bryan, chief
of engineering and technical services for the Detroit district office.
The Great Lakes Small
Harbors Coalition, led by Onekama retiree Chuck May, says $20 million a
year would cover all those areas' dredging and maintenance costs, and
rescue tourist communities that pump billions into the economy.
Farther up the coast near
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, the village of Leland scraped
together more than $100,000 from a local Indian tribe, businesses and
government agencies this year to dredge a 13-foot-deep channel enabling
charter fishing boats and pleasure craft to reach Lake Michigan.
Harbormaster Russell Dzuba is already fundraising to dredge in 2013 but
says that's no long-term solution.
"We have a moral obligation
to keep this place open," he said. "We're the only safe harbor for a
75-mile stretch and Lake Michigan is a tempestuous beast. But the feds
have cut us adrift."
