(MI) Detroit Free Press - The so-called hole in the St. Clair River, which carries water from Lake Huron down into Lake St. Clair, is definitely big enough to merit filling, although the fix would surely be more technologically sophisticated than that. Nonetheless, the recommendation of a study group — that their findings be incorporated into a much larger study of the lakes — is probably sound.

The St. Clair River subgroup of the Upper Great Lakes Study found that physical changes in the riverbed account for 2.8 to 5.5 inches of decline in the difference between the levels of Lakes Huron-Michigan and Lake Erie over roughly the last four decades. Other, entirely natural factors subtracted another 5.1 to 8 inches. (The total measurable change is 9 inches.) More