711.4216 M 58/136
The Secretary of War (Davis) to the Secretary of State
Dear Mr. Secretary: I have the honor to recommend that the desirability of constructing compensating works in the Niagara and St. Clair Rivers be presented to the Government of Canada with the request that its sanction and approval be given to the execution by the United States of the works for this purpose recommended in the report of the Joint Board of Engineers on the St. Lawrence waterway, dated November 16, 1926.26
[Page 45]The instructions to the Joint Board of Engineers, agreed to by the two governments, charged the Board with reporting, among other matters, upon the extent to which the natural water levels on the Great Lakes were affected by diversions authorized by license by either Canada or the United States, and upon the measures by which these water levels could be restored.
The investigations made by the Joint Board and presented in the report, showed that the levels of Lakes Michigan, Huron and Erie have been lowered by approximately .5 per foot each on account of diversions made under license from the United States and Canada, but that the levels of Lakes Michigan and Huron have been lowered by a total of somewhat more than one foot by all causes other than the natural fluctuations of their levels, that the levels of Lake Erie have already been lowered a total of 0.6 foot by such causes, and that upon the opening of the new Welland Ship Canal the additional diversion required for its operation will increase the lowering of Lake Erie to 0.7 feet.
The principal causes of these lowerings are the diversion by the Sanitary District of Chicago from Lake Michigan into the Chicago Drainage Canal, diversions for navigation and power purposes through the Welland Ship Canal, and the enlargement of the St. Clair River through the dredging of gravel for commercial purposes and by natural agencies.
The Joint Board of Engineers reported that it is advisable to construct compensating works in the Niagara and St. Clair Rivers to counteract the effect of all diversions and outlet enlargements on the levels of Lakes Michigan, Huron and Erie. The work proposed in the Niagara River consists of longitudinal dike approximately one-half mile in length, connected to the Canadian shore by a rock-filled weir, and supplemented by submerged rock sills in the deeper portion of the river adjacent to the longitudinal dike. The estimated cost of these works is $700,000. They lie in Canadian waters. The works proposed in the St. Clair River are a series of submerged rock sills, with crests thirty feet below the low water stage of the river, designed to restore the levels of Lake Michigan and Huron to the extent of one foot. The Board estimated that 31 sills, together with the backwater effect of the proposed compensating works in the Niagara River would raise the level of Lake Michigan and Huron by one foot. Their estimated cost is $2,700,000. These sills lie partly in Canadian and partly in American waters.
A major part of the artificial lowering of the levels of the Great Lakes results from the diversion made by the Chicago Sanitary District. It is the policy of this Department to require that the diversion be reduced to reasonable limits with utmost dispatch. The Department [Page 46] is forced to recognize, however, that a considerable diversion will be necessary for a period of years in order to safeguard the water supply of the City of Chicago. The reduction of the diversion by the Chicago Sanitary District to a reasonable and necessary minimum therefore will not render the construction of compensating works unnecessary. It will merely entail their modification. The design of the compensating works in the Niagara River is such that their effectiveness readily can be modified to meet a reduction in the amount of any diversion. The effectiveness of the proposed compensating works in the St. Clair River can equally well be modified to the extent that may be desirable, through an enlargement of the contracted reach at the head of this river.
The relatively small rise in the levels of Lakes Michigan, Huron and Erie, which will result in the execution of the work, will be of wide-spread benefit to the two countries. There is pending before this Department a report, made under the direction of Congress, upon the improvement of the interconnecting channels and principal harbors of the Great Lakes. The compensating works recommended by the Joint Board of Engineers on the St. Lawrence waterway will be included in the measures introduced for that purpose.
Under the provisions of the Treaty of 1909, between the United States and Great Britain, relating to boundary waters between the United States and Canada,27 the approval of the International Joint Commission, created by that treaty, is requisite to the construction of all works affecting the natural level of the boundary waters. The plans for the works will be duly presented to that Commission for its approval if they be authorized by Congress and after the consent of the Canadian Government to their construction has been secured. It will, however, be of material assistance to the Department, in presenting the plans to the Congress for the improvement of the interconnecting channels and principal harbors of the Great Lakes, to be assured that acquiescence of the Government of Canada to the construction of the proposed compensating works by the United States may be counted upon.
Sincerely yours,
- Report of Joint Board of Engineers on St. Lawrence Waterway Project, Dated November 16, 1926 (Ottawa, F. A. Acland, 1927).↩
- Foreign Relations, 1910, p. 532.↩