Drought Out West Has Michiganders Concerned With Great Lakes Levels

Low water levels in lakes and rivers out west have people in Michigan concerned with Great Lakes water levels.

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Lakes and Rivers In Western U.S. At Record Low Levels

The Colorado River is to the west and its water supply, while the Great Lakes and its water supply is to the mid-west.

Lake Powell

Lake Powell is fed by the Colorado River and is the second-largest human-made reservoir in the United States, and its water level is down 7%. Lake Powell has been losing 11 billion gallons of water per year.

Lake Mead

The Colorado River also feeds Lake Mead and it has lost 36% of its capacity. Since 2000 water levels have fallen at Lake Mead by 140 feet. Lake levels have dropped 20 feet in the last year alone.

Concerns About Great Lakes Water Levels

Lake Michigan and Lake Huron water levels are not at the low levels of Lake Mead and Lake Powell out west, but still concerning if this trend continues. Because the Straits of Mackinac connect Lake Michigan and Lake Huron the two lakes act as one.

According to MLive, Lakes Michigan and Huron are 8 inches lower than this time last year and 25 inches lower than the record height of 2020.

It was just a few years ago when all you heard on the news is how Lake Michigan is washing away the shoreline and houses were either falling into the water or very close.

Many residents were forced to leave their homes or spend serious money trying to save them from being washed out into Lake Michigan.

How Much Water Has Been Lost in the Great Lakes?

To give you an idea of just how much freshwater there is in the Great Lakes as a whole, the world uses roughly 10 trillion gallons of water in one year. Lake Michigan and Lake Huron now have 20 trillion fewer gallons of water than they did just 2 years ago. That is a significant drop.

Lakes Michigan, Huron, Superior, Erie, and Ontario as a whole are down nearly 34 trillion gallons of water in just a few years with the bulk of the that coming from Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.

Hopefully, the Great Lakes get the rain they need to replenish but this trend of water levels dropping could become a similar problem that states out west are now having.