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By BOB GROSS | Source: Port Huron Times Herald

HARSENS ISLAND — Larry Havens has a homemade chart documenting the ups and downs of Lake St. Clair since 1935, spread out on an old metal bench at Delta Hardware on Harsens Island.

He traces the lake’s swings with a finger work-roughened from a lifetime of driving sheet piling and building docks and seawalls.

“They used to say there was a seven-year cycle, but that’s not true at all,” said Havens, a longtime Harsens Island resident and a retired marine contractor.

“Bottom line is precipitation.”

The story of 70-plus years of water level changes at the Port Huron Times Herald >>

by Jeff Kart | The Bay City Times

Eugene Stakhiv, U.S. co-chairman of the study, said previous water level studies, in 1976 and 1993, have concluded that no economically feasible amount of structural changes in the lakes can bring about dramatic changes in levels, reducing highs and raising lows.

“We can’t control the extremes that Mother Nature imposes on the system,” Stakhiv said.

The five-year study, to cost about $14.5 million, will look at whether a 1960s dredging project by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the St. Clair River has caused erosion and a permanent drop in water levels in Lake Huron.

It also will examine whether that increased conveyance can be reduced by physical barriers.

The results of that portion are due in June 2009.

The study also will examine whether changes to existing control structures in Lake Superior, which release water into Lake Huron, can help lessen the negative effects of low water levels here. That portion is due in 2012.

But Stakhiv said he believes there is little the IJC can do to change lake levels during extreme periods of highs and lows.

He added that the effects of climate change may make regulating lake levels even more difficult.

“It may be that there are no useful solutions,” he said.

Slides from Monday’s presentation will be posted online at www.iugls.org, said John Nevin, an IJC spokesman.

Much, much more to the story at the Bay City Times >>

by Jeff Kart | The Bay City Times

A solution may have been reached on a dredging spoils site for the Upper Saginaw River.

Lt. Gov. John Cherry met Monday afternoon with officials from the state Department of Environmental Quality and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Jim Koski, Saginaw County public works commissioner, who has spearheaded the spoils site project, said he was “very happy” with the outcome.

“The lieutenant governor did a fabulous job of putting this together,” Koski said, adding that a news release about the project is coming soon.

…Meanwhile, officials from Frankenlust and Zilwaukee townships, where the slurry pit has been built, have sent letters to Cherry, questioning why he’s stepped into the fray.

Hilda Dijak, Frankenlust Township supervisor, said in an e-mail to Cherry that she believes he’s meeting with the Corps “to put political pressure on an environmental issue,” adding “What happens to the checks and balances when the politicians take charge of everything if it doesn’t go their way?”

Zilwaukee Clerk Patricia Bradt asked in a letter to Cherry that no decisions be made until a meeting is held with residents in both townships.

Asked to respond to the letters, Bucholz said, “The DEQ works for the governor, and by proxy, the lieutenant governor.

“So we believe that having the lieutenant governor involved is probably the best solution at this point in time.”

Read the full text of Zilwaukee Clerk Patricia Bradt’s letter to Lt. Gov. John Cherry here. (PDF)

Full story at The Bay City Times >>

Source: The Mining Journal

MARQUETTE — Last week’s tug barge accident in Marquette’s Lower Harbor is still under investigation after the successful recovery of the boat’s propulsion unit Friday morning.

According to Lt. Caren Damon, public affairs officer for the Coast Guard’s Sault Ste. Marie Sector, the recovery of the propulsion unit that sheared off the tug Dorothy Ann after it struck a  submerged rudder, occurred without any additional oil discharges.

Safety zone restrictions for deep-draft vessels for the harbor have been lifted, Damon said.

After a recovery delay on Thursday due to high winds, a marine crane lifted the 16-ton rudder out Thursday and retrieved the propulsion unit on Friday.

Damon said when the propulsion unit was found by divers, it was intact with no breaches. Read the rest of this entry »

Source: ArcelorMittal

CLEVELAND, OH — ArcelorMittal (NYSE: MT), the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and federal agency partners - the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) — gathered today in Cleveland to announce 16 projects selected to receive a total of $1 million in funding through the ArcelorMittal Great Lakes Restoration Program.

The 16 selected projects will restore and enhance the environmental integrity of the lakes by controlling invasive species, restoring wetlands and other habitats, promoting the recovery of threatened species, and educating citizens on how to protect the ecosystem.

“These grants help the Great Lakes by restoring critical habitat for fish and wildlife,” said Peter Stangel, director of science and conservation, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. Read the rest of this entry »

Shelley Nelson | Source: Superior Daily Telegram

Research into the illustrious — and sometimes less-than-illustrious — past of the SS Meteor has unraveled some of the mysteries of the world’s last whaleback ship. However, it has created more questions than it has answered, said Roger Pellett, a member of the Meteor Advisory Committee working to research the ship’s history.

He and Jim Sharrow of the Duluth Seaway Port Authority, another member of the committee, presented their findings to volunteers working to stabilize the ship.

… Originally commissioned as an iron ore carrier christened the Frank Rockefeller, the ship served many purposes over its 60-plus years of service. But, it’s the ship’s history as a ore carrier that stands out as the SS Meteor’s most significant, Pellett said.

…The 36th of 44 whaleback ships built by the American Steel Barge Co. based on Capt. Alexander McDougall’s fish-like design, the SS Meteor is the only ship of the fleet that hadn’t sunk, or been scrapped by the late 1960s. It remained in service until November 1969 — when Coast Guard officials said a major overhaul was needed after the ship ran aground near Marquette, Mich. It was retired and later towed to Barker’s Island, where it opened as a museum in 1973.

Full story at the Superior Daily Telegram >>

Source: WXXI

ROCHESTER, NY (2008-04-29) The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will begin dredging the Port of Rochester next month — so big ships can get into the Charlotte Harbor once again.

Dredging out the channel as far as the ESSROC cement company dock will re-open the Genesee River to the last commercial lake freighter that comes into Rochester. The “Steven B. Roman” ran aground a year ago because of silt in the channel.

It will also open the Port of Rochester to bigger Great Lakes cruise ships. Congresswoman Slaughter says that will let the terminal building in the harbor be used for passengers again.

And Slaughter says she’s talked with Canadian members of Parliament about possibilities for commercial ferry service once again between Rochester and Toronto. A company is trying to build interest in using a hovercraft to cross the lake.

Read the full story at WXXI >>

by Jeff Alexander | Source: The Muskegon Chronicle

West Michigan residents concerned about sinking Great Lakes water levels will get a chance to share their views this week when U.S. and Canadian officials studying the issue visit Muskegon.

The International Joint Commission, a U.S.-Canadian panel that advises the two nations on Great Lakes issues, is studying water levels in lakes Michigan, Huron, Superior and Erie. A committee working on the IJC’s International Upper Great Lakes Study will host a public hearing on lake levels Sunday, from 10 a.m. to noon, at Grand Valley State University’s Annis Water Resources Institute, 740 W. Shoreline.

“We want to hear lots of people come out and squawk at this public meeting,” said John Nevin, an IJC spokesman. “We want to hear what this issue means to people when the water is really high or really low.”

IJC officials might get an earful.

… Roger Gauthier, a hydrologist with the Great Lakes Commission, said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers could fix the excessive loss of water down the St. Clair River within a year by installing flow control structures near Port Huron.

“They could control erosion in the St. Clair River with underwater speed bumps — inflatable bladders that could hold back water (in Lake Huron) when water levels are low,” Gauthier said.

When the Corps of Engineers deepened the St. Clair River channel in 1962, the agency drafted blueprints for a concrete weir on the river bottom to control water levels in lakes Huron and Michigan. But the weir was never built because lake levels were generally above average from 1964 through about 1997; water levels have dropped like a stone since 1997.

See: Photo 1 Photo 2 Photo 3

Much more to this excellent story at the Muskegon Chronicle >>

Related Links

• OhioShipwrecks.org
• Ohio Sea Grant

Source: Ohio Sea Grant

Ohio Sea Grant has launched a new interactive website, Shipwrecks and Maritime Tales of the Lake Erie Coastal Ohio Trail, available to browse at www.ohioshipwrecks.org.

The website was designed to help promote the protection of Lake Erie’s shipwrecks and increase awareness of its rich maritime history. With the help of Sea Grant Extension, divers now have the information necessary to discover shipwrecks in Lake Erie.

“There was a pressing need for a website such as this,” says Joe Lucente, Ohio Sea Grant Extension Educator. “Now an online database of Lake Erie shipwrecks exists for people to access and learn about Lake Erie’s maritime history or find a wreck to explore.”

The site gives those who may be unfamiliar with Lake Erie shipwrecks access to details of the wrecks in a convenient location. Read the rest of this entry »

Source: CSL

MONTREAL — Canada Steamship Lines, a division of The CSL Group Inc. (CSL), has entered into an agreement with Fednav Ltd. of Montreal to purchase four of that company’s ocean-going Handysize bulk carriers. The vessels, all sister ships, currently sail as the Lake Michigan, Lake Erie, Lake Ontario and Lake Superior. The ships each have a summer deadweight capacity of 35,630 tons, and, at 222.48 metres in length and 23.13 metres in width, are full-size Lakers designed for Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Waterway trade.

The first of the vessels will be delivered in December 2008, and the balance by December 2009. They will all be re-flagged Canadian, creating approximately 120 new jobs for Canadian seafarers. The Lake Ontario and Lake Superior will be assigned Read the rest of this entry »

By Craig Smith | Source: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Big Brother won’t be breathing down the necks of charter fishing boat captains on Lake Erie.

Customs and Border Protection officials have backed off plans to require background checks for Great Lakes fishermen and divers entering Canadian waters. Anglers and divers who dock in Canada, however, will be subject to identification checks.

“We’re very, very pleased that they took another look at it and realized there was no threat to homeland security,” said Rick Unger, a retired police officer and president of the Lake Erie Charter Boat Association.

Catch the full story at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review >>

by Jeff Kart | The Bay City Times

Michigan Lt. Gov. John Cherry has intervened in an Upper Saginaw River dredging project that could be delayed because of disagreements between state and federal regulators.

State and federal officials say Cherry’s involvement may help settle differences between the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

But at least one environmental group, the Lone Tree Council, fears a closed-door deal is in the works.

… Another meeting between Cherry and officials from the DEQ, Corps and Saginaw County is planned for early next week in Lansing, said Mike O’Bryan, chief of engineering and technical services for the Corps in Detroit.

O’Bryan said there’s still time for the Corps and DEQ to come to an agreement. Dredging can’t begin until after May 15, when the eagle mating season ends. The Corps also doesn’t plan to award a dredging contract until July.

Additional monitoring wells are being installed at the Upper Saginaw River dredging site, and Bourdow Trucking of Saginaw has been chosen as the low bidder to shore up a dike on site for $58,000. After that, the site will be ready to go, said Jim Koski, Saginaw County public works commissioner.

More to the story at The Bay City Times >>

See Also: House passes Coast Guard bill despite Bush veto threat - Associated Press

John Myers | Source: Duluth News Tribune

The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday approved legislation requiring all saltwater ships entering U.S. ports to treat their ballast water by 2016.

The measure, part of a broader bill covering the U.S. Coast Guard’s mission and funding, is the strongest ballast water measure ever approved aimed at reducing the flood of exotic aquatic species arriving from foreign waters.

The bill, HR 2830, passed 395-7 and sets tough standards for the number and size of living organisms that ships can release when they release ballast water, requiring treatment technology be installed on new ships starting in 2009 and on all ships by 2016.

…The new ballast regulation has support from both the Great Lakes shipping industry and several environmental groups.

Read the full story at the Duluth News Tribune >>

By RICK OLIVO | Source: AP/Mlive.com

In her day, she was the archetype of the trim, speedy Great Lakes schooner.

Carrying a full set of canvas aloft, with cargos of grain and iron ore, she was a magnificent vision; widely regarded as the biggest, fastest and most beautiful of all the three-masted lakes schooners of the age.

She was the “Moonlight,” a wooden ship in an era of iron men and near-mythic triumph and tragedy on the Great lakes. She is renowned in sea-shanties that recall her grace, beauty and speed, her epic sailing duels with other schooners, racing the wind for home, and she is sadly remembered for her ignominious end, foundering in a fall gale near the Apostle Islands in September of 1903.

On July 30, 2004, shipwreck hunter Jerry Eliason is conducting a systematic searching for the legendary bulk freighter Marquette, which had sunk in the area of Michigan Island.

Instead, in some 240 feet of water, he discovered something he hadn’t even been looking for: the broken remains of the once majestic Moonlight.

Later that year, Bob Olson, Rick Peters and Ken Merryman, divers for the Great Lakes Shipwreck Preservation Society, found the vessel to be an astonishing archaeological treasure trove, amazingly intact after more than a century in the icy, preserving cold waters of Lake Superior. There the divers found the ship’s china, lanterns, anchors and the original steering wheel — all items that are commonly quickly looted from the sunken remains of vessels in shallower, more accessible waters.

… The State Historic Preservation Review Board of the Wisconsin Historical Society met last week and voted to include the Moonlight shipwreck on the state registry.

“It’s a time capsule,” Thomsen continued. “Everything that went down with her — the items the crew had brought on board — everything is there and it hasn’t been touched; it’s only been dived on by a few divers. For an archaeologist, it’s amazing.”

Read the rest of this fascinating story at MLive.com >>

By Jim Geyer | Source: WEYI NBC25

Before the days of global positioning systems or, even, ship to shore radio, lighthouses were there to guide mariners around the Great Lakes. And, while most of the more then 100 lighthouses in Michigan have been decommissioned, their history and legends, still live on.

Two of these facilities, the old and new Presque Isle Lighthouses, are about a mile apart in Northeast Lower Michigan, between Alpena and Rogers City.

The New Presque Isle Lighthouse, which isn’t that new, was built in 1870, is the tallest lighthouse tower accessible by the public on the Great Lakes. It’s a working lighthouse…

Read the full story, links at WEYI NBC25 >>

Related Links:

• GLMHC Website
• PDF Flyer about the Center (PDF)

By Jim Geyer | Source: WEYI NBC 25 (photos, video)

[At t]he Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center … people can explore shipwrecks through pictures, lectures, live video feeds and by way of one very impressive animated globe.

… The center contains displays of artiacts that have been recovered from approximately 200 shipwrecks. You can also look through the windows into the research section of the Maritime Center where scientists are continuing to analyze and catalog new objects recovered from the depths of Thunder Bay.

Full video, photos, rest of article at WEYI NBC25 >>

Posted By Megan Harrison | Source: Cornwall Standard Freeholder

The Ontario government has joined the ranks of environmentalists and New York State officials in rejecting the International Joint Commission’s (IJC) Plan 2007 as a viable option for managing the water levels along Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River.

Natural Resources Minister Donna Cansfield announced Wednesday at a Great Lakes Conference in Toronto that the provincial government is backing Plan B-plus, one of the first three options presented to the IJC in 2006.

Plan B-plus favours returning the water levels to their more natural ebb and flow to protect the environment, and would see the waters rise above normal levels during the spring thaw, and drop by several inches in the fall, when the climate is typically dryer.

Read the full story at the Cornwall Standard Freeholder >>

Posted By MONIQUE BEECH | Source: St. Catharines Standard

The Windoc, the bulk carrier damaged when the Allanburg lift bridge came down on it in August 2001, is likely months away from being resurrected.

The bridge was lowered onto the passing cargo carrier by mistake, causing a fire to erupt and smoulder for 22 hours. The accident closed the Welland Canal for two days.

For nearly two years, there have been plans by Algoma Central Corp., which purchased the Windoc in 2006, to put the cargo ship back into use.

Those plans are now months away from being realized, said John Greenway, vice-president of operations with Seaway Marine Transport. The St. Catharines company is managing the ship on behalf of its parent firms, Upper Lakes Group Inc. and Algoma Central Corp.

Greenway said a decision on what to do with the cargo vessel should be made within the next six months.

Greenway said staff are still deciding on design concepts to return the cargo ship to service, either as a self-propelled vessel or pushed by a large tug…

Read the full story, quotes at the St. Catharine’s Standard >>

Source: WLUC TV6

MARQUETTE — Coast Guard officials say efforts to clean up an oil spill from a tug boat accident in Marquette’s Lower Harbor are complete.

Environmental contractors were able to collect over 30 gallons of oil using a vacuum truck.  They picked up more oiled debris from the shoreline.

The area is surrounded by a containment boom and boaters are asked to stay away.

Full story at WLUC TV6 >>

Source: WLUC TV6

MARQUETTE — The Azipod, or mechanical thruster, from the tug boat Dorothy Anne has been found in Marquette’s Lower Harbor.

It was located Tuesday night by divers off the Shiras Power Plant.

A crane and barge are expected by the weekend for the recovery of the thruster.  Its arrival could be delayed by weather.

Full story at WLUC TV6 >>