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By BOBBY AMPEZZAN | Source: Times Herald (Port Huron, MI)

When the last 6-ton buoy was secured with gripe chains on the deck of the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Hollyhock, a seasonal anthem blared across the ship’s public address system.

“Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock!”

For about five weeks, the 50 men who comprise the Hollyhock’s crew have traveled from Buffalo, N.Y., to the Straits of Mackinac collecting more than 100 buoys.

At the end of the last buoy-tending trip on Dec. 21, the men smiled and some patted each other or nodded. Generally, the end of the buoy-tending season was greeted with as much hoopla as a pilot gives a successful airplane landing.

Great story, many neat photos at the Times Herald >>

Source: Department of Homeland Security Press Release

DULUTH, MN - Port and longshore workers, truckers and others at the Port of Duluth-Superior today will begin to enroll in the Department of Homeland Security’s Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) program. The program’s goal is to ensure that any individual who has unescorted access to secure areas of port facilities and vessels has received a thorough background check and is not a security threat. Nationwide, more than 1 million workers with unescorted access to secure areas will apply for TWIC during the remainder of 2007 and next year.

“The start of enrollment is one more step in our effort to prevent persons who are a threat from gaining access to secure areas of port facilities,” Read the rest of this entry »

Note: The round goby is an invasive species that was brought to the Great Lakes by trans-oceanic ship ballast. Information here.

By TOM MEERSMAN | Source: Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

Minneapolis - The loon, an icon of the North Woods, is dying by the thousands across a growing swath of the Great Lakes, victims of a bacterial disease that works its way up from the lake floor.

First noticed in the eastern portion of the Great Lakes chain eight years ago, deaths have spread west to Lake Michigan. So far, loons have not suffered die-offs in Lake Superior, but officials are concerned about the potential in Duluth-Superior harbor.

Scientists think the birds are killed by Type E botulism that works its way up the food chain from the bottom of the lake. There, naturally occurring botulism spores germinate and grow into toxin-producing bacterial cells. Those bacteria move into quagga mussels as they filter the water.

Then a small fish called a round goby picks up the bacteria by eating the mussels.

When loons, long-tailed ducks, gulls, grebes and other birds eat the infected fish, the toxin enters their systems, paralyzing the birds. Within hours, they can no longer fly or hold their necks up, and they drown.

Read full story at the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel >>

by Eric Sharp | Source: Detroit Free Press

States are passing stricter ballast control measures than the Environmental Protection Agency, which has sold out to the businesses that want saltwater ships to continue to come into the Great Lakes with little or no controls.

But we have hard evidence now about how much damage they cause. John Taylor at Grand Valley State has shown us how much more they cost our economy than they add to it.

And we know from the work of David Lodge at Notre Dame that not only is the threat from ballast water inside the ships greater than we thought, the growths on the outsides of ships may be an even more significant source of invaders.

Politicians are loath to afflict the well-connected, and most bureaucrats are too timid to upset the politicians. So it’s imperative that we see that researchers, such as Taylor and Lodge, get the support they need to continue their studies.

Read the full piece at the Detroit Free Press >>

by Jeff Alexander | Source: Muskegon Chronicle

Plunging Great Lakes water levels likely will create more headaches and hazards for freighters and recreational boaters in 2008 and lead to calls for increased harbor dredging.

Lake Michigan’s water level is approaching the record low set in 1964, according to government data. Federal officials are predicting the lake level, currently 26 inches below its long-term average, will continue to drop and could dip below the record by May.

Without increased harbor dredging, freighters could run aground in ports like Muskegon and Grand Haven.

The federal government’s reluctance to dredge commercial harbors, like those in White Lake and Pentwater Lake, could make recreational boating hazardous. The plunging water levels could leave some channels, like the one in Mona Lake, high and dry.

The only immediate solutions: More precipitation and more winter ice cover on the Great Lakes, which reduces evaporation.

Full story at the Muskegon Chronicle >>

By Karen Lincoln Michel  | Source: Green Bay Press-Gazette

MADISON — Two years after eight governors signed a compact to protect the Great Lakes, Wisconsin lawmakers plan to introduce a bill in late January to approve the agreement.

A bipartisan group of four state legislators has been working on the bill that would not only adopt the compact, but would also include a water conservation management plan, says Sen. Rob Cowles, R-Allouez.

“What we’re grappling with is how to implement and interpret the compact to define conservation,” said Cowles

Read the full story at the Green Bay Press-Gazette >>

by Sue Clark | Source: Lighthouse News

If you live in the Great Lakes area you might want to check out the upcoming exhibit at the Michigan Women’s Historical Center and Hall of Fame. Michigan’s female lighthouse keepers Ladies of the Lights: Michigan Women in the U.S. Lighthouse Service will be on display Jan. 14 to June 27, 2008.

Full details, photos & links at Lighthouse News >>

By Dan Schneider | Source: Mining Gazette

HOUGHTON — A number of local projects have been funded through the federal omnibus appropriations.

On Wednesday, President Bush signed into law H.R. 2764, the bill that will fund federal government operations through Fiscal Year 2008. The U.S. House of Representatives passed the bill Dec. 19, a day after the U.S. Senate gave its approval.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers received funding for two waterways in the Village of Ontonagon. These are the dredging of Ontonagon Harbor ($595,000 allocated) and the extension of the Ontonagon Channel (no amount specified).

According to the Army Corps of Engineers, 40,000 cubic yards of material must be dredged from the harbor each year. One consequence of not dredging, according to the Corps, is light loading of incoming freight vessels — a loss of one to two feet of channel depth resulting in increased annual transportation costs of between $370,000 and $770,000. The harbor receives coal freighters that supply Smurfit-Stone Container’s mill in Ontonagon and White Pine Electric Power LLC’s coal generating facility in White Pine.

H.R. 2764 also includes $121,000 to fund Corps dredging in the Portage Lake Shipping Canal.

Full story at the Mining Gazette >>

By MIKE FORNES | Source: Cheboygan Daily Tribune

CHEBOYGAN - Buoy retrieval under the Coast Guard’s Operation Autumn Retrieve has been completed, the Ninth Coast Guard District Office in Cleveland reports, allowing cutters and the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Mackinaw to concentrate on icebreaking missions.

The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Hollyhock retrieved the last two buoys Saturday from the U.S. Great Lakes’ list of more than a thousand pulled buoys. The final buoys decommissioned are Buoy No. 1 and Buoy No. 11, located in the channel in Lake Huron Cut. They are lighted buoys that would be damaged by encroaching ice if they weren’t rotated by a more durable buoy. Their replacements are new Sabik buoys, designed to be durable enough to withstand ice yet stand out of the water just as high as the seasonal buoys.

Full story at the Cheboygan Daily Tribune >>

By RYAN J. STANTON | Source: The Bay City Times

Leaders of the effort to bring the retired destroyer USS Edson to the Saginaw River say a permanent floating naval ship museum could give the local economy a major boost.

If the Edson arrives - some say that could happen next summer - it’ll be a ‘’substantive addition” to tourism in the Bay City area and the state of Michigan, enhancing the ability to attract tourists and extend their stays.

…By its third year of operation, Certec predicts, the Edson could see as many as 83,000 visitors annually along the Saginaw River at Bangor Township’s Independence Park. That would result in $5 million in direct expenditures a year, and an $8.2 million overall impact on the state’s economy, according to Certec.

Full story at The Bay City Times >>

Jim Nichols | Source: The Cleveland Plain Dealer

 For many of its 78 years, the 603-foot Calumet hauled iron ore for the steel that girded the United States’ prosperity. It helped make the steel of the World War II victory effort, the steel of Buicks and bridges, and the steel bones of the nation’s great skyscrapers.

In this windswept International Marine Salvage yard at the southern end of the Welland Canal, the Calumet will complete the cycle of its life.

The worn-out boat, owned by Avon Lake-based Grand River Navigation Co., was due for retirement late this winter, but the end came prematurely last month. On one of its 50 or so annual visits to Cleveland, the boat cracked into a concrete wall at the Cuyahoga River’s mouth last month and split a side.

Soon, [Wayne] Elliott’s sons and hired hands will attack the bulkheads, decks and hull with cutting torches, reducing the ship to recyclable rubble - 2-by-4-foot plates that can fit into the charge box of a steel mill’s blast furnace.

Read the full story at the Cleveland Plain Dealer >>

By Nathan Phelps | Source: Green Bay Press-Gazette

The port — and the Great Lakes — could see another evolution in the coming years as the concept of short-sea shipping takes hold and as fees that have discouraged the practice on some types of cargo are re-examined.

Dean Haen, director of the Port of Green Bay, said one of the factors that has limited short-sea shipping on the Great Lakes is taxes levied on cargo each time a ship stops in a port. The government is looking at a possible waiver of that tax on some cargos, which could make expanded short-sea shipping a viable option on the lakes.

“It would allow ships to be able to stop port-to-port-to-port,” he said. “Right now, the way it’s set up with the Harbor Maintenance Tax, every time that ship would stop, it would have to pay tax on everything on board. So if you’re the fourth stop in a route, your cargo will have been taxed four times.”

Right now, about 10 percent of the cargo coming through Green Bay is international.

“But I think with short-sea shipping, you will see that change,” Haen said. “You could have containers coming in on an ocean-going vessel to, say, Montreal, and that ship would be unloaded onto feeder vessels, where those containers would then come right to Green Bay.”

That could offer a transportation savings instead of sending product to an East Coast port, then sending it by train to Chicago, and then trucking it Green Bay, he said.

Full story and photos at the Green Bay Press-Gazette >>

By MICHELLE YORK | Source: The New York Times

ROCHESTER — In the evening, the Rev. Thomas H. Wheeland likes to retreat to the back porch of his rectory at Holy Cross Church and look out onto Lake Ontario, illuminated by a wide beam of light from a neighboring lighthouse.

The Charlotte-Genesee lighthouse, on Lake Ontario, is now a museum.

Years have passed since the stone lighthouse, built in 1822, was needed to guide ships into port. Today it is a museum, a beacon to the city’s once-bustling past.

The Fresnel lens in use here takes the light cast by an ordinary bulb and focuses it into a beam visible for up to 15 miles. The city of Lorain, Ohio, nearly 300 miles away, and on Lake Erie, says it is the rightful owner of the lens and has begun a campaign to have it returned.

The problem is that Charlotte’s current Fresnel lens is the one from the Lorain lighthouse, which had become a target for vandals and was on the brink of demolition.

John Cole, editor of the Lorain paper, The Morning Journal, called Charlotte’s current use of the lens “absurd” in print.

“My sense is that the lens belongs in the lighthouse for which it was made,” Mr. Cole said in a subsequent interview. “And I’m going to see what I can do to get it back here.”

Full story and photos at the New York Times >>

Adam Wright | Source: The Chronicle-Telegram

LORAIN — The Lorain Planning Commission has changed its mind about a limestone grinding plant moving to the city’s east side.

The three-member board reversed its earlier decision and voted unanimously to recommend that Council rezone 15 acres of land at Riverbend Commerce Park, formerly known as the Colorado Industrial Park, from light industrial to heavy industrial.

The rezoning is necessary for Cleveland-based Oglebay Norton to build the plant there…

Read the full story at the Chronicle-Telegram >>

Source: Battle Creek Enquirer

 Cleveland-based Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. announced this week it has taken a 70-percent controlling interest in Minnesota-based Renewafuel LLC, which has a production-scale research and development facility in Battle Creek.

Cleveland-Cliffs’ investment comes with the company’s intentions to expand capacity at the Battle Creek facility.

Cleveland-based Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. announced this week it has taken a 70-percent controlling interest in Minnesota-based Renewafuel LLC, which has a production-scale research and development facility in Battle Creek.

Cleveland-Cliffs’ investment comes with the company’s intentions to expand capacity at the Battle Creek facility.

By Dean Cousino | Source: Monroe News

The Port of Monroe will get some badly needed federal funds to dredge the main shipping channel for the first time in about eight years.

The port will receive $495,000 to scour the Monroe Harbor as part of a massive omnibus spending bill that Congress passed this week.

“The entrance channel is in pretty bad shape,” the director said Thursday. “The channel is about 300 feet wide, but we’re lucky to have 160 to 170 feet for vessels to come in and turn at the basin. Part of it is shoaled in on the north side. If it’s real windy, it certainly can negatively impact them.”

Cargo haulers on the Great Lakes generally are about 1,000 feet long and 100 feet wide.

“They don’t have a lot of leeway if they have to turn around,” he said. “We look at this bill as a positive step to restoring capacity for Great Lakes’ navigation. There are quite a few ports on the lakes in similar shape.”

It’s been about seven to eight years since the channel has been fully cleaned.

DTE is the biggest user of cargo at the port, but ships also bring in scrap metal, liquid asphalt and limestone aggregates, he said.

Full story at the Monroe News >>

See Also: Federal act includes funds for dredging GH harbor - Grand Haven Tribune

By Nate Reens | Source: Muskegon Chronicle

In a move that could propel a happy holiday in Pentwater and other Lake Michigan shoreline communities, Congress on Wednesday approved a spending bill that includes dredging projects at recreational and commercial harbors.

The bill includes $523,000 for dredging in Muskegon, $205,000 for White Lake, $607,000 for Grand Haven and $151,000 for Pentwater.

President Bush is expected to sign the bill, according to Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Holland.

Read full story at the Muskegon Chronicle >>

Iron ore shipments in October in the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway system were 5.7 million net tons, a 1.5 percent increase compared to a year ago, according to the Lake Carriers’ Association.

The shipments were 2.5 percent lower than a five-year average for the month.

For the year, iron ore trade on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway system through October was 47.2 million tons, a 2.4 percent decrease compared to 2006.

Low water levels and a dredging crisis continue to limit iron ore vessels from carrying full loads, according to the association.

Source: WSBT22

The waste in the waterways has been produced in part by Indiana’s steel industry. The mills churned out 26 million tons of raw steel last year, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute. That’s about 10 million tons more than the second most-productive state, Ohio.

Much of that production comes from the region, which also has steel operations in Portage, Burns Harbor and East Chicago.

“Steel is still probably the single-most important industry up here, although it obviously is a whole lot smaller than it was even 10, 20 years ago,” said Don Coffin, an economics professor at Indiana University Northwest in Gary.

The primary metals industry, which includes iron and steel operations, employed more than 32,000 people in 1990 in the region, Coffin said. It employed 18,500 as of last September.

Read the full story at WSBT 22 >>

BY GEORGE MILLER | Source: Erie Times-News

The Port of Erie’s first shipment of biofuels from Lake Erie Biofuels also marks a first in Great Lakes shipping history.

The shipment, which left Erie early Thursday morning on the Clipper Tobago, is the first export of biofuels on the Great Lakes through the Saint Lawrence Seaway, said Terry Johnson Jr., administrator of the Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corp.

“I heartily congratulate Lake Erie Biofuels for their leadership role in this fast-growing, alternate energy field,” he said.

Read the full story at the Erie Times-News >>