Did we pull the plug !!??

The headline in this mornings St Paul paper reads, "Dredging causes huge Great Lakes water loss, report says". Boy, I don't know....seems to make a lot of common sense to me. I know the knee jerk reaction is supposed to be that we blame global warming. The problem is that even Al Gore himself couldn't explain such a rapid decrease in the water levels. Could it be as simple a principle as the way the drain in your bathtub operates, when you open it up the water rushes out more quickly? The Canadian study recommended a fairly simple fix, covering the eroding areas with rock and installing a few gates to control flow. Of course our quick to react US officials, the same crew that was Johnny-on-the spot after Katrina, have decided that we would be "conducting a five-year study that would recommend what to do". The Canadian group and environmentalists in both nations said waiting that long would severely damage wetlands, fish habitat, water quality and Great Lakes cargo shipping. That would give Washington the rare opportunity to piss off fishermen, kayakers, boaters, environmentalist, and the business community all at the same time. This would appear to be something that we actually could deal with in a timely fashion. So what's there to study or drag feet on? The other telling line was, "findings since then show the volume being lost is three times as much—even topping the 2.1 billion gallons pulled from Lake Michigan each day to supply Chicago's municipal system". Lets see.....Chicago is pulling out 2 billion gallons a day, at least that much is flowing 'down the drain' into the Atlantic, and we need a 5 year study to figure out where the hell the water is going? I wonder what type of 9/11 or bridge collapse catastrophe it will take for the government policy setters to get their thumbs out of their posteriors?