While Lake Michigan pounds Chicago shore, Trump administration delays protections

High waves from Lake Michigan on Saturday hit the lakefront trail near North Avenue as a winter storm moves through the Chicago area. Freezing rain left roads and trees glazed with ice across parts of northern Illinois as a winter storm packing a mixed bag of precipitation cut power to about 5,000 homes and businesses across the region. | Ashlee Rezin Garcia /Chicago Sun-Times

Immense waves are pounding Chicago’s shoreline, and the Army Corps of Engineers predicts that lake levels will soon set record monthly highs, but a federal plan to protect the shorelines of the Great Lakes is tied up in red tape.

The delay does harm to Chicago and the entire Great Lakes region.

Lake Michigan’s water level has been rising since 2013, when it was at a record low, and we’re already seeing the damage. The lake is claiming beachfront homes, flooding basements, submerging piers, closing parts of Lake Shore Drive and bike paths, swamping cars and closing or washing away beaches. Water levels even rose noticeably in the lagoons surrounding the Garden of the Phoenix in Jackson Park.

That should set off alarm bells in Washington. And, in fact, Congress in 2018 approved spending $12 million on a Great Lakes Coastal Resiliency Study, which would map out a plan to manage and protect 5,200 miles of coastline. Such a study is needed so that shoreline protection projects in one area won’t undermine efforts in another area.

But the Trump administration has other ideas.

So far, the administration has refused to allocate a single line-item dollar in its budget to get the study started. Anyone concerned about the lake’s shorelines should be encouraging the White House to include the Great Lakes Coastal Resiliency Study when its next budget comes out, probably in early February. If the White House fails to act, the Army Corps should at least find $1.2 million in its own “work plan” budget to pay for getting the study started.

“The Office of Management and Budget has not funded it. The Army Corps has not funded it,” Jordan Lubetkin, spokesman for the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition, said on Monday. “When you think about the value it will give, it is a great investment.“

This chart shows the changing water levels of Lake Michigan over recent years. The red bar indicates the historical average.

In the past, coastal protections have been piecemeal and often counterproductive. A protective wall erected in one place can result in erosion in another. What’s desperately needed is for the Great Lakes states and federal agencies to work in a coordinated and scientific way to protect land and infrastructure, as well as taxpayers’ wallets. That’s what the Great Lakes Coastal Resiliency Study could do.

Concrete walls along the lake can damage spawning beds for fish and eliminate a natural shoreline. A wise policy would include keeping the lake at bay from valuable infrastructure while installing native plantings and wetlands wherever possible and building underwater barrier reefs to reduce the power of the waves.

But all of that needs to be coordinated in one comprehensive plan.

When a swollen lake is pounding at roads and building foundations, emergency measures take priority. But when the levels drop back down, it will be time to sensibly rebuild the shorelines for resiliency.

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