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Jim Carroll | Source: GoErie.com

The Port of Erie might soon lose its water route to the Atlantic Ocean.

Canadian lock workers are threatening a strike that could shut down the St. Lawrence Seaway, the inland waterway that connects the Great Lakes to the Atlantic.

“It could affect us a bit,” said Tod Eagleton, dock operations supervisor for Erie Sand & Gravel, which serves as the stevedore for the Port of Erie.

Most affected could be Erie’s biodiesel producer.

… Lake Erie Biofuels hopes to send at least two more shipments of its biodiesel fuel to Europe before the Great Lakes shipping season ends in December. A strike on the St. Lawrence Seaway would complicate that.

Peterson said a shutdown of the St. Lawrence Seaway would not halt the company’s overseas shipments, but it would change how it gets there and what they’d have to charge.

… the company expects to ship its biodiesel to Europe in tankers filled with anywhere from 1.5 million gallons to 3 million gallons.

… Of the 34 vessels that have arrived in Erie this season, seven have been international ships, Eagleton said.

Those consisted of six tankers and one cargo ship delivering 775 tons of equipment bound for a mill in New Castle.

Limestone is the biggest volume cargo that comes into Erie, and Ray Schreckengost, executive director of the Erie-Western Pennsylvania Port Authority, said a shutdown of the Seaway would not impact that type of Great Lakes cargo.

Salt shipments from upstate New York might be affected, but salt has already been stockpiled at the local docks, he said.

Other companies affected, alternative routes and comments on Erie Terminal at GoErie.com >>

Source: RedOrbit

A new rule requiring all ships to flush their ballast tanks in the Atlantic Ocean before entering the Saint Lawrence Seaway should be enough to save the Great Lakes, an expert says.

Collister Johnson, administrator of the Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation said the rule solves the issue of protecting the five lakes from invasive species carried by incoming ships.

“I just wonder sometimes if (environmental groups) appreciate that they’ve won the battle. And whether we ought to move on to other things like sewage runoff, and infrastructure, and other things that are problems for the Great Lakes,” Johnson said.

Read the full story at RedOrbit >>

Source: Thunder Bay’s Source

A weak shipping season for the Port of Thunder Bay could become even worse next month.

Workers with the St. Lawrence Seaway have voted to give the Canadian Auto Workers union that represents them a strike mandate, with a potential walkout coming as early as Oct. 10.

Local port authority CEO Tim Heney said Thunder Bay could be among the hardest hit centres if the strike goes ahead.

“Thunder Bay is the largest export port on the seaway,” he said. “That means most of our cargo goes all the way through the Welland Canal - [a labour disruption] would certainly have a dramatic impact on us if it lasted any length of time.”

Read the full story at Thunder Bay’s Source >>

Source: Trading Markets

A strike by St. Lawrence Seaway employees would result in a loss of east coast shipping capacity at a time when western Canadian producers can least afford it, according to an industry source.

“It’s a prime time for western Canadian producers to market their grain and oilseed crops and to sell those commodities onto the world market at a good value,” Rick Steinke, Director of logistics, for the Canadian Wheat Board, said.

Grain and oilseeds from western Canada are generally railed to port facilities at Thunder Bay, Ontario. From there the grain and oilseeds are generally transferred from Thunder Bay terminals to east coast transfer elevators located at the mouth of the St. Lawrence Seaway system by laker vessels. Some smaller ocean going vessels can also load at Thunder Bay terminals.

“Our understanding is that if the strike by the St. Lawrence workers goes ahead, it will be very difficult to move grain through the St. Lawrence Seaway without the seaway management corporation employees,” Steinke said. “We need them to operate the locks and allow for the flow of products.”

Read the full story at Trading Markets >>

Related: Seaway unionized workers OK strike after October 10th - Seaway System

by Matthew Van Dongen | Source: St. Catharines Standard

St. Lawrence Seaway workers, including about 300 in Niagara, have given their union a strike mandate.

In three separate votes this month, 445 Seaway workers gave their union a mandate to strike after Oct. 10, said Mike Menicanin, a national representative for Canadian Auto Workers.

That includes operations and maintenance workers, supervisors and headquarters staff from Niagara to Quebec.

… If a strike happened, the seaway would close. The company said it is preparing a contingency plan for “an orderly shutdown.”

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

Source: Oswego County Today

The Port of Oswego Authority continues to thrive with new business activity, as international trade shipments continue to arrive on a regular basis, according to Jonathan Daniels, executive director at the port.

In what many would consider a weak economy, the port continues to buck that trend with record-setting results.

…Of the four U.S. Great Lakes ports that … received Pacesetter awards, the Port of Oswego had the largest increase over the past year - bringing in 182,000 tons of cargo, representing a staggering 220 percent increase in international tonnage.

…In addition to cement, asphalt, fuel oil, soy beans and windmill components, imports of aluminum ingots destined for Novelis, fertilizers and other materials crucial to local industry are distributed from local port docks each year.

Photos, cargoes and future plans for the Port all discussed at the Oswego County Today >>

Mike Simonson | Source: Business North

A Wisconsin Ports Association letter blames California U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer for the delays. Lake Carriers Association President James Weakley agrees.

“As things stand right now, yes, the bill is effectively stalled.”

Weakley and several Great Lakes port directors want the ballast bill passed…to end the threat of closing the St. Lawrence Seaway to shipping. That threat comes after an appeals court ruling in July that said ballast water must comply with the Clean Water Act, and the EPA can’t exclude ballast water from the Act.

Weakley says the ballast water bill would simply allow the Coast Guard to decide ballast water standards…not have state-to-state regulations.

…Wisconsin U.S. Senator Russ Feingold says he’s working to get the bill through Congress, and acknowledges that the stumbling block is the Clean Water Act.

Read the full story at Business North >>

By COREY LAROCQUE | Source: Niagara Falls Review

When massive lakers like the Robert S. Pierson and Canada Steamship Lines Laurentien are cruising through the Welland Canal, it takes more than a mile for them to stop.

It’s one of the reasons the Allanburg lift bridge over the canal stays up longer than the Glendale bridge. Vessels move faster in that straightaway stretch than they do on other sections of the canal that connects lakes Erie and Ontario.

It means the Allanburg bridge has to be up longer, because a ship would need more time to stop if there were a problem, says John Chalmers, operations support coordinator for St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp.

…Not only do controllers manage the movement of ships and lift bridges on the canal, they’re responsible for security, using a network of closed-circuit cameras along seaway property.

The operations centre is also the canal’s emergency response centre in the event of a fire or other emergency aboard a ship. And one controller is responsible for deploying the seaway company’s employees where they need to be.

…”What we’re striving for, as a corporation, is to get ships through in 12.5 hours or less 90 per cent of the time,” said Chalmers.

Ship captains can count on getting through the Welland Canal in that period of time about 84 per cent of the time. On average, it takes 11 hours for a ship to travel through the canal.

Very neat behind-the-scenes look at Seaway Operations, including photo of the ops center, at the Niagara Falls Review >>

Source: Seaway Channel

U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has given the Coast Guard a deadline of Monday, August 4th to submit materials relating to their handling of the Order on Remand that the Court issued more than a year ago on July 23, 2007.

Legal observers with extensive federal court experience say it is rarely a good thing to “stick a thumb in the eye” of any member or members of the federal bench and that the Coast Guard’s legal strategy of trying to “wear down” their opponent is unlikely to work once a case has gone as far as the U.S. Court of Appeals and back.

In fact, in deciding in favor of Menkes the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit warned the Coast Guard that failure to comply with the Court’s direction would open up not only the administrative procedures complaints made by Menkes’ attorney but also the much broader civil rights claims made by Menkes for the Court’s consideration.

Full story at the Seaway Channel >>

by Dan Egan | Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold has a message for anyone who thinks closing the St. Lawrence Seaway to oceangoing vessels is too radical to even consider.

“These shippers should know that we’ll do what it takes to protect the Great Lakes, and nothing should be completely taken off the table,” Feingold, a Democrat, said this week.

A federally funded study released Wednesday reveals the toll of the invasive species that oceangoing ships have dumped in the Great Lakes is now costing the regional economy at least $200 million a year. It is adding pressure to the politicians wrestling over how to fix the No. 1 reason for the problem — contaminated ship-steadying ballast water discharged by the relatively small number of overseas vessels that ply the St. Lawrence Seaway.

The overseas shipping industry on the Great Lakes has dwindled in the decades since the Seaway opened in 1959 to the point that last year an average of less than two overseas ships entered per day for the nine months a year it’s open.

A coalition of about 100 conservation groups representing millions of citizens first proposed the idea last year of banning those ships from the Great Lakes until the ballast problem can be solved, though the concept has been scoffed at by the shipping industry as unrealistic.

…A separate study released Wednesday by the National Research Council says closing the U.S.- and Canadian-owned Seaway to oceangoing vessels is not a viable option because, among other things, it “appears impractical from a political perspective.”

Feingold sees it differently. He and most conservationists prefer a legislative solution that will require all oceangoing ship operators to install treatment systems to kill unwanted organisms sloshing around in their ballast tanks.

Such a bill passed in the U.S. House this summer, but the issue remains stalled in the Senate.

Much more to this excellent story at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel >>

Source: Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway

The St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corporation (SLSMC) announced today that cargo incentives introduced at the beginning of the 2008 navigation season are bringing about a rise in new cargo movements. As of June 30th, over 295,000 tonnes of new cargoes have transited the Seaway, generating $610,045 in new revenues.

“We are finding new pockets of opportunity” noted Richard Corfe, President and CEO of the SLSMC. “The marine mode continues to be the transportation mode of choice for project cargoes. In addition, we are seeking to establish our foothold in new industries as they begin to move product volume. Among the new cargoes transiting the Seaway are bio-fuels from recently established processing facilities bordering our waterway, and a bevy of project cargoes including wind turbines destined for sites throughout North America.”

The Seaway’s total tonnage volume as of June 30th stood at 13.7 million tonnes, compared with 14.1 million recorded in the previous year. “We continue to face headwinds in certain sectors” explained Richard Corfe “most notably imported steel due to the decline in the value of the U.S. dollar, the slowing economy, and the high price paid for steel in overseas markets”.

With domestic steel mills at full capacity, the demand for iron ore, coal and coke has increased markedly, including new export opportunities for these commodities. Coupled with stronger flows of road salt to replenish stocks depleted by a cold winter, bulk tonnage is strong, resulting in a Canadian laker fleet that is running at full capacity. However, the lack of vessels coming into the system laden with imported steel has curtailed the amount of grain tonnage transiting the Seaway.

To encourage shippers to utilize the Seaway, the SLSMC has frozen toll rates, with the present 2008 tariffs remaining in effect until the close of the 2010 season. In addition, specific toll discounts are applicable to cargoes meeting a variety of criteria. More information concerning the incentive programs can be found on the Seaway’s www.greatlakes-seaway.com website.

The story of the St. Lawrence Seaway is one of progress and commerce — but look deeper, and you’ll also find a story that’s as much about war, diplomacy and politics as engineering.

Tony Atherton | Source: The Ottawa Citizen

The U.S. War of Independence made North America’s greatest river an uneasy border between hostile neighbours. The War of 1812 deepened the distrust, giving rise to two canal systems, neither on the St. Lawrence.

The British built a canal from the Ottawa River to Kingston, designed to move troops from Montreal to Lake Ontario without having to use the narrowest part of the St. Lawrence, where they could be vulnerable to attack.

The U.S., meanwhile, built the Erie Canal between Lake Erie and the Hudson River, providing an all-American route from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean. Its commercial success convinced Canadians to begin lobbying for an all-Canadian shipping route, and the St. Lawrence was the most practical route. Work began on the Cornwall Canal, a system of locks to circumvent the Long Sault Rapids, in 1834. More canals were constructed just upstream and others built closer to Montreal, so that by the middle of the 19th century, small ocean-going vessels could travel all the way up the St. Lawrence to Lake Ontario.

The canals were rebuilt and enlarged in the late 19th century and, with tensions between Canada and the U.S. much reduced, the St. Lawrence began to take traffic away from the Erie Canal. An international Seaway Commission was appointed to see whether the two countries might co-operate on further development of the river.

This should be a must-read piece for every North American; read it at the Ottawa Citizen >>

by Dan Egan | Source: Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

U.S. Seaway boss Collister Johnson Jr. says talk of blocking oceangoing traffic on the Great Lakes isn’t realistic because the U.S. jointly owns the Seaway with Canada, so the U.S. could not unilaterally close the door to oceangoing ships.

“It’s just not going to happen,” he says.

It isn’t just Americans who have floated the idea of locking out overseas vessels. In May last year a binational coalition of 90 environmental groups endorsed the idea of a shipping moratorium until those vessels can prove they will not further pollute the lakes.

But even if people contest the accuracy of his $55 million estimate, he says, the federal government’s own data reveals how relatively tiny the overseas shipping business is. Last year 459 oceangoing vessels sailed up the Seaway during its nine-month shipping season.

“People think it’s a lot bigger part of the transportation system than it is,” he says.

Rail executives say they have ample capacity to handle the roughly 9 million tons of cargo oceangoing ships moved through the Seaway last year.

Ship operators who sail only in the Great Lakes and Seaway also say they could muster the capacity to move that tonnage to and from the Eastern ports if rail couldn’t do the job.

“If there were more product there, our ships would take advantage of that,” says Don Morrison, president of the Canadian Shipowners Association. “We wouldn’t let anything sit on the dock.”

Full story, more quotes and details at the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel >>

by Dan Egan | Source: Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

The scope of the ecological damage of the biological pollution linked to overseas shipping is matched by its staggering economic toll.

• The cost comes in lost tourism on beaches unsuitable for swimming and in the empty recreational fishing boats that are the backbone of a Great Lakes fishery valued at over $7 billion a year. Recreational fishing from Michigan’s 10 busiest fishing ports on Lake Huron, for example, has plummeted from around 1.2 million hours in 2003 to about 300,000 last year - because of a crash in salmon. And there are early but ominous signs Lake Michigan’s sport fishery could be headed in the same direction.
• The cost comes in power and water bills as part of never-ending programs to keep water intake pipes free of mussel and algae buildup. We Energies alone spent well over $3 million on structures to keep cladophora out of intake pipes at just two power plants, in Port Washington and Oak Creek. It is spending an additional $2.6 million on special mussel-proof screens as part of its expansion at Oak Creek, and its overall operating costs for controlling mussels - which cluster and clog industrial intake pipes like plaque in a carotid artery - is estimated at $500,000 a year. That’s just one company. The most comprehensive survey to date indicates the pipe-clogging costs to industry and government since 1988 approach $1.5 billion.
• The cost comes in tax bills - $358 million has been spent by the U.S. and Canadian government since 1958 killing just sea lampreys, an almost-forgotten bloodsucking parasite that swam into the lakes through the shipping canals and still must be controlled with annual doses of poison or it will devastate what’s left of the lakes’ prized predator fish.
• The cost comes in shrinking property values and our ability to enjoy the lakes. Just one county in Wisconsin gives a glimpse of the fortune at stake. Property records show shoreline properties in Door County, where Nell lives, have an assessed value of $2.6 billion.

Scientists say the only way to stanch the shipborne onslaught is to somehow sterilize the freighter-steadying ballast water sloshing in the bellies of the 700-foot-long behemoths that lumber up the Seaway.

But there is another simple, radical and potentially cheap way to address this problem - shut oceangoing ships out of the lakes until they can prove they won’t pollute them.

The shipping industry claims a ban could deal a brutal economic blow to the Midwest. But the relatively tiny amount of overseas cargo that flows on the Seaway likely could be absorbed at a relatively small cost by a handful of daily trains, or transferred before the ships reach the Seaway door to a Great Lakes-based freighter fleet.

The shipping industry bristles at the notion. But the industry also balked at the mandate for double-hulled oil tankers; now it boasts about its safety record.

Preliminary results from a federally funded study under way at the University of Notre Dame estimate that the economic loss tied directly to 57 exotic species scientists believe were delivered to the lakes by overseas vessels is costing us about $300 million a year - more than a million dollars a day for every day the Seaway is open (it closes each winter because of ice). That number does not include any losses in property values.

And the economic benefit of allowing the polluting ocean ships into the Great Lakes?

Only about $55 million a year, in terms of transportation savings over truck, rail and barge alternatives, according to a 2005 Joyce Foundation-funded analysis of cargo flows on the Great Lakes. The study has been ferociously criticized by shipping interests as an overly simplistic look at a complex transportation system, but it was successfully defended before an independent panel of transportation experts.

The promise of the Seaway, when it opened in 1959, was that it would turn Midwest cities such as Milwaukee into world-class ports. But it was built too small to accommodate many of the world’s freighters. Today ocean vessel traffic on the Great Lakes is a boutique business, done by an antique-sized fleet that accounts for less than 7% of the cargo moved along the Seaway and among the five big lakes, according to the Army Corps of Engineers. The ships primarily haul foreign steel into the region and depart with grain.

The vast majority of Great Lakes shipping is done by the freshwater “laker” fleet that hauls bulk commodities such as iron ore, salt and cement from one Great Lakes port to another.

Much, much more analysis, coverage; photos, video and diagrams at the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel >>

Source: Seaway Channel

Even though there was an 8 percent increase in iron ore tonnage, total cargo movement by U.S. flag laker vessels on the Great Lakes dropped by 2 percent in the month of May compared to last year’s figures. On the bright side however, the 5-year average for the May tonnage float (approximately 11.9 million net tons) was met this past month according to the Lakes Carriers’ Association (LCA).

The downturn was more painfully felt in terms of stone and coal tonnage …

Full story, causes and statistics at the Seaway Channel >>

Source: The Great Lakes - St. Lawrence Seaway System

Mariners are advised that for safety reasons, the Port of Montreal Administration has defined a zone between elevator No 4 and CIP No 2 of the St. Lawrence Seaway where commercial shipping will not be permitted to transit between 21:30 and 23:00 hours on June 21st, 2008.

This could result in delays to navigation.

The St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corporation together with the Port of Montreal Administration will monitor the situation closely during this first fireworks event in order to mitigate the impact on navigation for the future events.

BY TOM AYERS | Source: The Nova Scotia Business Journal

The master plan includes four economic opportunities for the ports of Sydney, including the container terminal, expanded cruise ship business, bulk shipments of coal and break-bulk shipments.

“The master plan is ports-wide, so the container terminal is one component,” said Jim Wooder, CEO of Laurentian Energy and spokesman for the marine group. Wooder and Don Rowe, general manager of Sydney Ports Corp., which operates the marine terminal, said the region has every advantage it needs in terms of existing infrastructure.

Wooder said he has been assured the rail line can handle container shipping and short-sea shipping would also be an option for moving goods to the U.S. eastern seaboard and into the Great Lakes.

“I think a lot of the cargo would be moved by short-sea shipping,” said Rowe. “Everywhere in North America they’re having difficulties with road shipping.”

… Wooder said the marine group is confident that it can build the container terminal and capture some of the new shipping business expected to arrive in North America through the Suez Canal on the next generation of large ships now being built.

Read the details of the proposed master plan at the Nova Scotia Business Journal >>

By MIKE FORNES | Source: Cheboygan Daily Tribune

CLEVELAND - Substantial progress has been made in the past year regarding regulation of ballast water discharges into area waters, according to the Great Lakes Ballast Water Working Group which has released the Great Lakes Ballast Water Management Report.

Highlights from the report include a marked improvement over the prior year’s inspection program statistics in a number of areas, including ship compliance rates.

• 100 percent of first-trip ships bound for the Great Lakes received a ballast water exam.
• 100 percent of ballast water reporting forms were screened to assess ballast water history, compliance, voyage information and proposed discharge location.

The complete report can be viewed by contcating the Coast Guard at externalaffairs@uscg.mil.

Read the full story at the Cheboygan Daily Tribune >>

Source: Seaway Channel

Yesterday, the St. Lawrence Seaway entities released tonnage statistics for the period from the Great Lakes/St. Lawrence Seaway System’s opening in March through May 31st of this year. The figures showed significant improvement over a report released less than two weeks ago covering the period through April 30th.

Seaway traffic in the month of May brought 2008 year-to-date combined tonnage to a level within 5% of last year’s levels at this time.

Read the full analysis, raw figures at the Seaway Channel >>