ANN ARBOR, Mich., March 23 (UPI) -- The water level in the Great Lakes is rising, which is good news for private boaters and commercial shippers, the Detroit Free Press reported Tuesday.
Deeper water means fewer twisted propellers, wider shipping channels, beaches with less muck and fewer canal-stranded boats, said Cynthia Sellinger, a hydrologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory in Ann Arbor.
"Practically all the Great Lakes and Lake St. Clair will be above last year's levels," Selliger said.
But it won't be much: about six inches on Huron and Michigan, and all the lakes are still well below long-term averages.
This year's predictions of higher levels reflect more precipitation in the Great Lakes basin and longer lasting ice cover that prevents evaporation.
Large amounts of snowmelt also are replenishing the Great Lakes basin, which contains 20 percent of the world's supply of fresh surface water.
