The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Canadian Department of Transportation are studying the navigational system in the Great Lakes and along the Saint Lawrence River. As the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Celeste Headlee reports, the groups are holding public hearings on the issue this summer:
Transcript
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Canadian Department of
Transportation are studying the navigational system in the Great Lakes and along the
Saint Lawrence River. As the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Celeste Headlee reports,
the groups are holding public hearings on the issue this summer:
The study will evaluate current conditions in the Great Lakes and determine what is
required to maintain the navigational routes at the existing size and capacity.
Tim Eder is the director of Water Resources for National Wildlife
Federation. He says any plans for Great Lakes navigation must address current problems
of invasive species and habitat destruction, not make them worse. Eder says only a
handful of ships come in from foreign ports on a daily basis…
“But each ship brings with it the risk of another invasive species and right now, our
fishery in the Great Lakes region is teetering on the brink of collapse because of zebra
mussels, because of sea lampreys, because of Asian carp that are knocking on the door
trying to get into the Great Lakes… most of which, not all, but most of which come in the
ballast tanks of ships from foreign ports.”
The public hearings are being held at various locations through July 14th.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Celeste Headlee.
The view from an icebreaker on the channel between the Snell and Eisenhower locks near Massena, NY. Icebreakers have to crunch through ice for the Seaway to open on time. (Photo by David Sommerstein)
The St. Lawrence River is the only way for international shippers to bring cargo in and out of ports such as Duluth, Detroit and Chicago. The river’s frozen during the winter and the shipping channel is closed. The date it re-opens each spring is highly controversial because icy conditions can damage the shoreline. Critics say the government agency that runs the Seaway is sacrificing the environment to get ships to port earlier. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s David Sommerstein has more on this debate:
Transcript
The St. Lawrence River is the only way for international shippers to bring cargo in and out of
ports such as Duluth, Detroit and Chicago. The river’s frozen during the winter and the shipping
channel is closed. The date it re-opens each spring is highly controversial because icy conditions
can damage the shoreline. Critics say the government agency that runs the Seaway is sacrificing
the environment to get ships to port earlier. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s David
Sommerstein reports:
This year the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation plans to allow shipping starting
March 25th. But the spring thaw comes late to northern New York and the St. Lawrence River.
Even in late March, there can still be lots of ice, especially in bays and coves. And it’s a sensitive
time for fish.
“There’s many species of fish that begin their spawning activities very early, even before the ice
is out.”
Stephen Litwiler of New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation says a ship’s wake
can rattle the ice enough to gouge delicate habitat.
“The ice going up and down is scouring the shoreline and pushing water in and out of the shallow
marshy areas and it’s dislodging vegetation that’s critical for these habitats.”
The bobbing ice can be so bad it can damage people’s docks and homes along the river.
A chorus of politicians and interest groups, including New York’s two senators and the Mohawk
tribe that lives along the river, are calling on the St. Lawrence Seaway to postpone its March 25th
opening date. Just one week, they say, will give the ice time to melt. Stephanie Weiss directs the
citizens’ group Save The River. She says environmentalists fear the date is driven by the
shipping industry.
“People lose money, so when you have that situation when they’re trying as hard as they can to
open early, we think it just makes it difficult for them to make the safest possible decision.”
The decision is made by government agencies in the U.S. and Canada. Seaway administrator
Albert Jacquez makes the call for Washington.
“To be honest with you, if I was listening to the industry and only the industry, we wouldn’t even
be talking about this date. We’d be talking about opening a lot sooner.”
Jacquez says the Seaway balances commercial demand with weather conditions, thaw trends, and
environmental concerns when it chooses an opening date. Last year thick ice forced the Seaway
to postpone the opening for the first time ever. Save The River’s Stephanie Weiss says it always
needs to be delayed rather than damage the river’s ecology.
“It was too early last year and it might be too early this year. It’s difficult really for anyone to
know.”
Weiss says getting cargo ships in and out of Great Lakes ports one week earlier isn’t worth the
risk of damaging the St. Lawrence River’s fish and nature for good.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m David Sommerstein.
The current range of the invasive zebra mussel. The mussel was first spotted in the Great Lakes in 1988 after being dumped overboard by a foreign ship. It has since spread throughout much of the United States.
Cargo ships bring goods that we buy, but they also bring invasive critters in their ballast water. These invaders compete with native species and upset the natural balance. Now, delegates from around the world have drawn up a plan to help stop the spread of these foreign stowaways. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mark Brush has more:
Transcript
Cargo ships bring goods that we buy. But they also bring invasive critters in their ballast water.
These invaders compete with native species and upset the natural balance. Now, delegates from
around the world have drawn up a plan to help stop the spread of these foreign stowaways. The
Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mark Brush has more:
Ships need ballast water to keep them upright when sailing open waters. But often that ballast
water contains foreign species.
The international plan aims to implement guidelines that would clean up the ballast water. The
delegates will now try to get their countries to sign onto the plan.
It will be ratified when 30 countries representing 35% of the cargo shipped sign onto it.
Dennis Schornack is the U.S. Chair of the International Joint Commission. The Commission
monitors the health of the Great Lakes. He says the U.S. can’t wait for ratification and needs to
pass it’s own law now.
“I mean we’re having a new species discovered on the average of one every eight months. And if
the convention goes along an ordinary schedule of ratification it could be up to ten years to fifteen
years before it’s effective worldwide. So, we can’t wait that long.”
Schornack is hoping the international plan will give Congress the framework it needs to pass its
own law this year.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mark Brush.
A rare extension of the shipping season through the Soo Locks at Sault Saint Marie, Michigan is encountering the challenges of nature… but ships continue to plow their way from Lake Superior ports to the lower Great Lakes. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mike Simonson has more:
Transcript
A rare extension of the shipping season through the Soo Locks at Sault Saint Marie,
Michigan is encountering the challenges of nature, but ships continue to plow their
way from Lake Superior ports to the lower Great Lakes. Mike Simonson reports for
the Great Lakes Radio Consortium:
An unusually high demand for domestic iron ore from northern Minnesota and
western coal from Montana and Wyoming caused the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers
to keep the Soo Locks open an extra ten days. Weather permitting, they’ll try to
keep the locks open until January 25th.
Glen Nekvasil is with the Lake Carrier’s Association in Cleveland. He says this
won’t become an annual extension.
“This is a one-time request. The steel industry had a late surge in 2003, especially
seeing the tariffs on imports are gone, we just could not take a chance on letting that
momentum slip away because 2004 is a whole new ballpark for them. We got to start
out with every advantage we can.”
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Michigan Department of Environmental
Quality all had to agree to the extension, since they say plowing ice flows can cause
environmental disruption.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mike Simonson.
Two environmental groups have released a study that questions the benefits of allowing bigger boats on the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway. Save the River and Great Lakes United paid for the report because they fear deepening the channels and allowing ocean-going vessels on the Great Lakes would harm the ecosystem. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Peter Payette reports:
Transcript
Two environmental groups have released a study that questions the benefits of
allowing bigger boats on the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway. Save the River
and Great Lakes United paid for the report because they fear deepening the
channels and allowing ocean-going vessels on the Great Lakes would harm the
ecosystem. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Peter Payette reports:
Researchers at the Pennsylvania Transportation Institute critiqued a study done by
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The critique focused on the idea of making the
locks and canals big enough to handle container ships. These boats now dock on
the East Coast and their cargo comes into the Midwest by rail or truck. The new
report says there’s no evidence that it would be more efficient for container ships to
unload at Great Lakes ports.
Lead Author Evelyn Tomchick says moving containers into the Midwest by water
would be slower.
Also the longer transit times are usually associated with greater unreliability. That
is, there’s variation in the time of arrival, the actual time of arrival.”
Tomchick says unreliability has costs that weren’t calculated.
A spokesman for the Army Corps agrees further study is needed to know the costs
and benefits of any expansion. The Corps of Engineers is currently studying what
it will cost to maintain the locks and channels the way they are.
For The Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Peter Payette.
Court battles over the Missouri River have subsided… for now. The debate has focused on whether the Corps of Engineers should drop water levels to protect endangered species… or keep a normal flow to ensure barges would be able to ship cargo. In the end… levels went down… but not for nearly as long as courts had ordered. And as the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Tom Weber reports… this summer’s fight might just be the first battle in a war over the river’s management:
Transcript
Court battles over the Missouri River have subsided… for now. The debate has focused on
whether the Corps of Engineers should drop water levels to protect endangered species… or keep
a normal flow to ensure barges would be able to ship cargo. In the end, levels went down, but not
for nearly as long as courts had ordered. And as the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Tom Weber
reports, this summer’s fight might just be the first battle in a war over the river’s management:
On paper, the Corps of Engineers lowered the Missouri River this summer because of three
things: The piping plover and the least turn, two birds hat nest on sandbars, and the pallid
sturgeon, a fish that lays eggs in the shallow water.
Lawsuits by environmental groups like Chad Smith’s argued having too much water flowing in
the summertime disrupts and essentially washes away those nesting areas.
But Smith, who’s with the group, American Rivers, says the issue is much larger than two birds
and a fish…
“What we’re trying to do is to restore some semblance of the river’s natural flow, along with a lot
of habitat and try to make the Missouri River look and act more like a river. Right now it’s
managed like a ditch and it looks like a ditch.”
Smith says years of management by the Corps of Engineers – building dams and levees and
controlling river flows – have made river depths fairly consistent. But he says, really, that’s just
not how rivers work.
“You would have snow melt and rain coming into the river in the springtime, increasing the
flows, and then throughout the rest of the year, particularly during the hot summer months, the
levels would be very much lower, and that’s the kind of natural dynamic that fish and wildlife
adapted to.”
And so when a federal judge in Minnesota told the Corps of Engineers to lower water levels on
the Missouri, it was an attempt to get the river back to its natural ebb and flow. The court order
was for a four-week drop in levels, but the Corps only lowered the water for three days towards
the end of the endangered species’ nesting periods.
But even those three days upset business interests along the river, particularly the barge industry.
Towboats can be seen pushing barges up and down the Missouri River between Sioux City Iowa
and St. Louis. A group of politicians and business leaders, in fact, recently met at the Gateway
Arch in St. Louis to criticize the judge’s order. It’s actually the Mississippi River that passes in
front of the Arch, but because the Missouri spills into the Mississippi just north of St. Louis, the
group noted that lowering one would lower the other. And Missouri Senator Jim
Talent says that has a negative effect on jobs and the local economy.
“When that river goes down the barges can’t move. We’re inhibiting barge traffic already and if
this continues it’s going to stop. And we really need to step back from the brink of an action that’s
really just unreasonable and being forced on us by an extreme interpretation of the law by the
courts.”
Congresswoman JoAnn Emerson, whose district borders the Mississippi, wonders why the
Endangered Species Act that essentially won the lawsuit to lower levels is of higher importance
than people’s livelihoods.
“My mandate in Congress is from the people up and down the Mississippi River, people from my
Congressional district. My mandate isn’t from the piping plover or the least tern or the pallid
sturgeon.”
The debate over the Missouri River might have been moot if not for one other factor: A drought
has plagued parts of the Midwest for more than a year and made the rivers even lower.
A few days after the group met at the Arch, the Mississippi River got too shallow for any barge
traffic and closed for a weekend. Having cargo just sitting there, not getting to market, cost the
economy a million dollars a day by some estimates.
Barge groups blamed the lowering of the Missouri; environmental groups blamed the drought.
Barge traffic is moving again and the nesting season is over for the endangered species named in
the lawsuit. But the fight is far from over as both sides appear ready for another round. Once
again, Chad Smith with American Rivers.
“We’re prepared to stay in court for as long as it takes if the Corps is going to continue to be
obstinate about this. The Corps is now on notice through the court actions this summer that these
things are serious and they can’t hide from them.”
For its part, the Corps has said it will work with other government agencies, namely the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service, to come up with a plan for managing the river for both wildlife and the
barges in time for next year. But it has said that before, and the two sides seem just as
far apart as they’ve ever been.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Tom Weber.
A preventative measure used by ships is supposed to stop tiny foreign aquatic animals from invading the Great Lakes. But a new study finds it doesn’t always work on their eggs. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
Transcript
A preventative measure used by ships is supposed to stop tiny foreign
aquatic animals from invading the Great Lakes. But a new study finds
it doesn’t always work on their eggs. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
Ocean-going ships from foreign ports are supposed to swap out ballast
water while at sea. The ocean’s salt water flushes out or kills many
of the tiny invertebrate animals called zooplankton. But Derrick Gray
at the University of Windsor’s Great Lakes Institute for Environmental
Research says the higher salinity does not kill many zooplankton
species’
eggs…
“This is important because although ships exchange their tanks in
mid-ocean, if this doesn’t have an effect on the eggs, that means there
could be live organisms introduced into the Great Lakes.”
Gray says the concern is that more exotic zooplankton will out-compete
native zooplankton… a major
source of food for fish. That could hurt Great Lakes fish populations.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.
Two research vessels may be plying the shores of Lake Michigan next year using a unique form of biodiesel fuel. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Tracy Samilton has more:
Transcript
Two research vessels may be playing the shores of Lake Michigan next year using a unique form
of biodiesel fuel. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Tracy Samilton reports:
The Annis Water Resources Institute at Grand Valley State University has two research and
educational outreach vessels. Engineer Robert Udell would like to see the boats running on some form of
biodiesel fuel by next season. The idea he favors the most is gathering up all the used fryer oil
that campus eateries use for making french fries, then processing it to fuel the boats. Udell says
there’s only one side effect he’s aware of.
“You quite often get a french fry exhaust odor. I’ve been close to engines running on diesel
from fryer oil and it’s really not that noticeable.”
Udell says the fuel could also be shipped in from Chicago, but he prefers having a small
processing plant on campus. He says it could make the fuel more cheaply, and provide hands-on
learning opportunities for chemistry and engineering students.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Tracy Samilton.
The bow of the Grecian, a shipwreck in Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary.
Dr. Robert Ballard’s team launches a sonar scanner.
Underwater explorer Dr. Robert Ballard became a celebrity for finding the Titanic in mid 1980’s. But that ship is just one of his many underwater discoveries. He and his team of researchers travel from one far flung location to another, exploring and searching for lost shipwrecks, ancient coastlines, and unknown deep sea trenches. However, recently his team was at work in Lake Huron. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Tamar Charney reports:
Transcript
Underwater explorer Dr. Robert Ballard became a celebrity for
finding the Titanic in mid 1980’s. But that ship is just one of his
many underwater discoveries. He and his team of
researchers travel from one far flung location to another,
exploring and searching for lost shipwrecks, ancient
coastlines, and unknown deep sea trenches. However,
recently his team was at work in Lake Huron. The Great Lakes
Radio Consortium’s Tamar Charney reports:
On this fall day, the water’s calm, the sky blue, and the air warm. But Lake Huron isn’t always
this way. The Great Lakes’ legendary storms have left the bottom of Lake Huron’s Thunder Bay
littered with shipwrecks.
(Ship’s horn blast)
(engine noise, water drips and waves throughout piece)
Dr. Bob Ballard and his team from the Institute for Exploration have a research vessel hovering
above one of the shipwrecks in the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary near Alpena,
Michigan.
“I’ve become convinced and what brings me here to Thunder Bay is that the deep sea is probably
the largest museum in the world. There is more history in the deep sea than in all the museums of
the world combined.”
Ballard says the Great Lakes are home to thousands of shipwrecks that trace the evolution of
maritime trade in America, from Native American canoes to modern barges.
“What is really nice about the Great Lakes is because it is fresh water we don’t have wood borers
like we have in salt water. The ships I’ve found, the Titanic, for example, its deck was eaten and
the grand staircase was eaten but here in Great Lakes, because it’s fresh water, you have the best
preserved ships on the planet.”
This is the second year that Ballard and his team have come to the Thunder Bay National Marine
Sanctuary. The sanctuary was created two years ago to preserve the bay’s shipwrecks. According
to historical records, an estimated 116 ships sank here, but only about 40 have been found. And
that’s why Dr. Ballard and his team are here, searching for undiscovered shipwrecks and taking an
up-close look at the ones we already know about.
(ambient sound of man yelling, “Watch the A-Frame.”)
They’re exploring the sanctuary, using underwater robots that are equipped with high definition
video cameras and sonar systems. Dwight Coleman is the Chief Scientist on the expedition.
Earlier in the day they sent two of these robots, Argus and Little Hercules, down into the water
below the research boat.
“So all the data that’s coming up from the vehicles while it’s working on the shipwreck, all the
video data and other information, such as the altitude and the heading and the depth, is all coming
in through these cables and into this control room, and from here we can sit and operate the
vehicles.”
At the moment, Little Hercules’ cameras are focused on a wreck called the E.B. Allen. It’s a
schooner that hauled grain. It sank to the bottom of Thunder Bay after a collision with a ship
called “Newsboy” in 1871. Patrick Labadie is a Maritime Historian who is on board taking a look
at the images of the E.B. Allen.
“It’s a really good glimpse of the accident that took the ship down. The masts are down, the
rigging is all confused and laying on the deck. There is a neat circular hole in the side of the ship
where the other vessel struck it. You can see the evidence of a whole sequence of events:
a collision, the ship’s rigging coming down, sinking, striking the bottom and damaging its bow as
it struck. It’s really fascinating.”
In addition to gathering information, pictures, and video from known wrecks like the E.B. Allen,
Ballard’s team is making some new discoveries here. And Dwight Coleman says they’ve found
two new wrecks in Thunder Bay, including a three-masted schooner from the 1800’s.
“I think the best thing for me is really the exploration, is finding the unknown, and to look into
places that have never been looked at before. And we did that yesterday with this new schooner
ship.”
It’s this excitement of discovery that inspired Dr. Bob Ballard to become an underwater explorer.
Now he’s hoping to give the general public a little taste of what he does and let them explore
underwater sanctuaries without getting cold or wet.
“Well, Thunder Bay is one of 13 marine sanctuaries and if you look around right now, we are the
only people out here. Isn’t that odd? If you go to Yellowstone you’d see thousands of people. So
what we want to do is bring thousands of people here but most people won’t be sophisticated
divers, and go down 100, 200, 300 feet. So a very, very small club of people can actually reach the
shipwrecks, the cultural resources here. And what we’re trying to do is to change that, and we’ve
been in here for two years, surveying the sanctuary, finding all of the ships that are here and then
trying to pick one or two of them and wire them up.”
The idea is to allow people in the sanctuary’s visitor center to go on their own remote controlled
underwater exploration using a system of underwater cameras and robots like Little Hercules. But
even before such a system is in place, the videos and pictures they’re taking will open up the
sanctuary for the general public. For the first time, the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary
visitor’s center will have high quality pictures and videos to show people what the wrecks in
Thunder Bay actually look like.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Tamar Charney.
The Coast Guard has completed its investigation into the capsizing and sinking of the J.W. Westcott II. The J.W. Westcott delivers mail, miscellaneous items, and crew members to Great Lakes freighters as they pass through the Detroit River. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Tamar Charney reports:
Transcript
The Coast Guard has completed its investigation into the
capsizing and sinking of the J.W. Westcott II. The J.W. Westcott
delivers mail, miscellaneous items, and crew members to Great
Lakes freighters as they pass through the Detroit River. The
Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Tamar Charney reports:
Last October, the J.W. Westcott II sank while attempting to drop-off and pick up a pilot from a tanker. The J.W. Westcott’s captain and a crew member died in the accident. The coast guard has concluded that the captain misjudged the effects of the water and waves surrounding the tanker. However, the coast guard’s report and an earlier report from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada found several contributing factors. The J.W. Westcott II was early, there was no communication between the two vessels, and the tanker hadn’t slowed down yet. The coast guard’s report recommends changes in training and procedures for how the J.W. Westcott II approaches, meets, and conducts transfers with ships. Since the accident the J.W. Westcott II was pulled up from the bottom of the river, fixed, and is back delivering mail to the passing ships.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Tamar Charney.
