Winter operations, 1970-1971 / John C. Ayers, Norbert W. O'Hara, William L. Yocum.

C. THE ICE BARRIER AT THE COOK PLANT SITE

Each winter the eastern shore of Lake Michigan forms a substantial barrier
of ice along its beaches and in the nearshore water. The ice barrier justly
has been credited with protecting the shore from wave action by its presence,
and blamed for causing shore erosion during its breakup.
Concerned citizens commonly charge that waste heat from generating stations
will melt away the barrier of shore ice and expose their beaches to the erosive
effects of winter waves.
The essential barrier against winter-wave beach erosion is the icefoot.
Located along and just landward and lakeward of the water's edge, this barrier
forms a compact ice complex.
Marshall (1966, p. 31) says, "An icefoot can be composed of any combination of frozen spray or lake water, snow accumulations, brash, stranded ice
floes, and sand which is either thrown up on the icefoot by wave action or is
blown out from the exposed beaches." With such a variable composition, and in
the absence of literature specific to the ice of the local area, we have carried out studies to determine the mode of formation, composition, variability,
and duration of the icefoot and the other components of the shore ice structure.
The studies have been centered upon, but not limited to, the area of the
Donald C. Cook Nuclear generating station, south of Benton Harbor, presently
under construction.
From aerial photographs and ground and water observations, there is no apparent difference in the basic structure of the shore ice from Sleeping Bear Dune
in northern Michigan to the Bailly Station at Burns Harbor, Indiana. The shore
Marshall, E. W. 1966. Air photo interpretation of Great Lakes ice features.
Special Report No. 25, Great Lakes Research Division, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich. ix and 92 pp., 64 figures.

2