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By DILLON THORNE | Source: The Mining Journal

MARQUETTE - A replica of Christopher Columbus’ ship the Nina eased into Marquette’s Lower Harbor Thursday, where it will remain for tours until next Thursday.

The ship is a traveling museum and was last in Marquette in 1998.

This voyage marks the first time any of the six-person crew has sailed to Marquette. For the majority of the crew, it’s also their first time on Lake Superior. Read the rest of this entry »

Source: BusinessNorth.com

A new facility in Superior will conduct research to combat invasive species in the Great Lakes. Danielle Kaeding reports.

Superior is now the home of the world’s first fresh water test facility to research ballast water treatment methods. The facility will test different water treatment systems that may be used to prevent ships from carrying invasive species to the Great Lakes.

American Great Lakes Port Association Director Steve Fisher says scientists at UW-Superior and the University of Minnesota-Duluth can analyze their research on a larger scale.

Full story at BusinessNorth.com >>

Sher Jasperse | Source: Home & Away Magazine

Other than the time my husband and I hiked the Grand Canyon, I can’t remember a vacation that evoked as much interest from friends, relatives and strangers as the week we spent as volunteer lighthouse keepers at Michigan’s Grand Traverse Light last September.

Lighthouses are, without a doubt, places of fascination for many people, thanks to their distinctive architecture, beautiful natural settings and the storied role they played in the nation’s maritime past.

Full story about the volunteer lightkeepers’ experience at Grand Traverse Light Station at Home & Away Magazine >>

by Bob Kelleher | Source: Minnesota Public Radio

Ships calling on the Great Lakes may soon have to treat their ballast water, to prevent the spread of non-native plants and animals. New regulations cleared the U.S House Transportation Committee Thursday. They target ballast on ocean going ships and may expand to the Great Lakes fresh water ships. A new laboratory in Superior, Wisc. could be key to helping ship owners comply.

Duluth, Minn. — Ship ballast water has a nasty habit of carrying creatures big and small from places they’ve lived for millenia to places they clearly don’t belong at all.

The water carried aboard ships sailing the Great Lakes is blamed for bringing in destructive creatures like zebra mussels and sea lamprey - even a tiny virus that’s been on a fish killing spree in the lower lakes. The problem’s been recognized for years, but Congressman Jim Oberstar (D-Minnesota) says little has been done about it. Read the rest of this entry »

By LUCIAN A. McCARTY | Source: The Palladium Times Online

The Department of Homeland Security is in the very early stages of research into establishing new anti-terror regulations for small boats and jets.

The ideas that have been circulated about potential regulations could require boaters to pass a proficiency test, carry a form of government-issued identification which would be fed into a federal database of recreational boaters and even have boaters equip their vessels with an electronic transmitter.

U.S. Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds, who represents a large portion of Western New York, is adamantly opposed to the idea of regulations. “If the passport fiasco is any indication, recreational boaters should be very wary of these potential new regulations,” he stated in a press release. “While we must secure our homeland, I strongly urge DHS to move with abundant caution in this arena.” Read the rest of this entry »

By David Steffen | Source: Toledo Free Press

The Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority approved June 28 the construction of an ethanol plant on the Maumee River.

If built, the plant would be the first ethanol plant with direct access to the Great Lakes.

“We are very pleased that the Port Authority feels that an ethanol plant would be a great addition to the City of Toledo and the region,” said Bob Spitler, an attorney for Buckeye Biopower. “We anticipate that the ethanol plant would have a significant positive economic impact on the region and help lead Toledo in the alternative fuels arena.” Read the rest of this entry »

Source: Houston Chronicle

CHICAGO (AP) — Manufacturing activity in five Midwestern states decreased slightly in May, breaking a streak of three consecutive monthly gains, according to data released Wednesday by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

The Chicago Fed Midwest Manufacturing Index - a measure of output in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan and Wisconsin - dropped 0.2 percent in May to a seasonally adjusted level of 104.6 after rising by a downwardly revised 0.4 percent in April. Initially, the Chicago Fed said its April index rose 0.6 percent.

Manufacturing in the Midwest region was slightly below national trends, as the Federal Reserve Board’s industrial production index was up 0.1 percent in May. Read the rest of this entry »

By Cindy Hodgson | Source: Manitowoc Herald Times

MANITOWOC — It’s not every day a 640-foot ship docks in the Manitowoc River, and even less often that it’s a ship made by a Manitowoc company.

The Saginaw, a self-unloading bulk carrier built in Manitowoc 54 years ago, pulled into port Sunday afternoon and was here until Tuesday, unloading 13,100 metric tons of barley for Busch Agricultural Resources.

“I would say it probably hasn’t returned here very many times,” said Capt. David Donkers.

A nameplate still displayed in the engine room indicates the ship, originally called the John J. Boland, was built in 1953 by Manitowoc Shipbuilding Inc. in Manitowoc. Read the rest of this entry »

Source: BusinessNorth.com

The three major hurdles the proposed $1.6 billion Minnesota Steel project has faced are financing, environmental review and permitting.

Financing was secured in April with the sale of the asset and promised investment by Essar Steel Holdings. The second leg, environmental review, moved a giant step forward this week on June 18 when the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) released the final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).

Although the 400 page document provides a detailed analysis of many alternative measures, the final EIS recommends the proposed project as the “preferred alternative.”

Full story at BusinessNorth.com

By Sean D. Hamill | Source: The Chicago Tribune

After resting at the bottom of Lake Erie for more than 150 years, one of the most historically significant Great Lakes shipwrecks has been found.

Thirty-eight people died when the side-wheel steamship Gen. Anthony Wayne went down April 27, 1850, north of Vermilion, Ohio. The ship, which according to legend was also carrying millions of dollars in gold coins, was discovered last September, but the find was announced this week by amateur shipwreck-hunter Tom Kowalczk.

Read full story at The Chicago Tribune

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• Photos: Margeka at SmugMug

Blog (with photos) by Amy B. | Source: Gather.com

We enjoyed watching the freighters go under the bridge and down the St. Clair River. The St. Clair River connects Lake Huron with Lake St. Clair to the south. After going through Lake St. Clair, these freighters will enter the Detroit River and pass Detroit on their way to Lake Erie.

Read full entry at gather.com 

Management gets order to cease blasting; injured resident resting at home

By Rick Forgione | Source: Niagara Gazette

TOWN OF NIAGARA — The blasting at the LaFarge stone quarry was silenced Monday morning after Town of Niagara officials served the business with an injunction ordering it to “cease and desist operations” detrimental to residents of the nearby Tuscarora Village mobile home community.

Signed by Town Building Inspector Charles E. Haseley, the order was delivered to LaFarge management at 10:30 a.m., Town Supervisor Steve Richards said. A blast that was scheduled to happen at noon Monday was called off.

“They were in violation of town law, so we closed them down,” Richards said. Read the rest of this entry »

An entry from MN Bicycle Commuter showing the appeal of Great Lakes freighters extends far and wide.

Source: UPI

DULUTH, Minn. (UPI) — Boaters on Lake Superior said the water is so low it appears the world’s largest freshwater lake is disappearing.

The lake, which is about 18 inches below average, has dropped nearly 2.5 feet over the past decade and the entire Great Lakes Basin is seeing reduced water levels, CBS News said Friday.

Recreational boaters are moving boats to marinas set in deeper water and commercial shippers are being forced to reduce cargo loads.

A 20 percent less rain has fallen into the lake during the current drought and warmer winter temperatures mean less ice cover and more evaporation. Scientists, however, say they don’t know if it is a natural pattern or global warming.

“Within a couple of years, they should be rising again,” ecologist Doug Wilcox, branch chief of the U.S. Geological Survey Great Lakes Science Center, told CBS. “If they continue to go lower and lower, that would indicate to me that we’re outside the bounds of the natural pattern.”

By CHRISTOPHER MAAG | Source: The New York Times

CLEVELAND, June 22 — The latest sign of America’s tugboat building boom sits on a bank of the Cuyahoga River here. Shaped like a curved silver tongue, the steel hull of the Great Lakes Towing Company’s first tugboat lies upside down in a brand-new factory.

The unfinished boat — and two more like it — are already sold, for $4 million apiece.

“Oh, we’re very excited,” said Ron Rasmus, president of Great Lakes Towing, which was founded by John D. Rockefeller in 1899.

Never in the tugboat industry’s 170-year history has there been such demand for new equipment, according to a study published this spring by Marcon International, a tugboat brokerage company. Shipyards that were nearly abandoned five years ago now have enough work to last at least through 2010.

The demand for tugs is driven in large part by new needs in the industry. As behemoth container ships grow even bigger, pushing them around cramped harbors requires tugs with bigger engines that can fit into tight spaces, Mr. McElroy said.

Full article in the New York Times >>

By Rick Forgione | Source: Niagara Gazette

Effects from the latest blasting at LaFarge quarry has led to the injury of a 51-year-old Tuscarora Village resident, according to a police report Friday.

Town of Niagara police responded to 4253 Mohawk Place for a woman who fell and struck her head while she was in the shower, Police Chief James Suitor said. The victim told police she fell while her home was shaking from the nearby blast at the quarry.

Suitor said the woman was taken to Mount St. Mary’s Hospital for evaluation around 12:17 p.m. Read the rest of this entry »

Source: Chesterton Tribune

BALTIMORE (AP) — The Justice Department on Wednesday gave Mittal Steel Co. another 15 days to sell a Maryland steel mill that the Dutch company must divest to settle antitrust issues.

The extension gives Mittal until July 5 to sell its Sparrows Point plant near Baltimore, Justice Department spokeswoman Gina Talamona said in an e-mailed statement.

Under the consent decree issued Feb. 20, the government can extend the period for up to another 15 days if necessary, Talamona said. Read the rest of this entry »

Source: CBS News

“We know there is a cyclic up and down of the lake,” Ron said. “I mean, history shows you that. But not this low.”

Boaters are complaining.

“Two sailboats got hung up and needed to be towed — one guy ran through it and broke his props,” boater Mitch Omer said.

But the real complaint comes from commercial shippers. Every inch the water falls forces the freighter fleet to drop another 8,000 tons of cargo. That adds up to a huge loss: $1.5 million annually per ship.

“A vessel is doing just the same amount of work with less tonnage, so they’re less efficient.” said Adolph Ojard, executive director of the Duluth Seaway Port.

Full story at CBS News >>

By James Janega | Source: Chicago Tribune

 From one view of history, the Great Lakes are near record lows, approaching the bottom-scraping frustration of the mid-1960s.

From another, longer view, though, the lakes are nearly as high as they’ve ever been, just a few feet below the high-water mark reached at the end of the Little Ice Age in the 1850s.

Both pictures are scientifically accurate and are getting more attention from climatologists, lake scientists and environmentalists curious about history’s large climate cycles and how they tip the lakes’ eons-old balancing act of rainfall and runoff, heating and evaporation.

The fluctuations are raising new questions about whether climate change has begun to alter the depth of the lakes, though the picture is still too complex to yield definitive answers.

Full story at the Chicago Tribune >>