Federal forecasts predict the level in the three Great Lakes could drop as much as 10 inches below last year's lows. Already, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has received 225 dredging requests, well above last year's pace.
Water levels are the hot issue right now.
It's going to get hotter as soon as people try to put their boats in the water. Already this winter, several Detroit-area communities have applied for dredging permits, including Grosse Pointe, St. Clair Shores, Grosse Pointe Farms and Grosse Pointe Shores. People have been running aground. If we don't dredge, we think we'll lose 50 percent of those boat slips. At least 30 sites along the Detroit River's bottom are polluted with heavy metals such as lead, nickel and cadmium, farm pesticides including DDT and toxophene, and diesel fuel, according to federal studies.