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Seaway expansion rears its head in climate bill

Earlier this summer, Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio introduced an amendment to the American Clean Energy and Security Act that would create a power authority for the Great Lakes region; the St. Lawrence Seaway Corporation is envisioned to fill that role.

As the Watertown Daily Times reports, the bill would transform the $32 million department into a $3.5 billion agency. The funds could then be put toward improving locks, dams and other navigational infrastructure.

The danger, however, is that the funding could be put toward physical expansion of the Seaway, not just maintenance and upgrades. Expansion refers to the enormous task of enlarging the locks and channels of the St. Lawrence Seaway to make way for larger vessels to access the Great Lakes.

For decades stakeholders from a variety of sectors have fought, and beaten back, expansion proposals. Such a massive project would destroy fragile habitat, re-suspend settled contaminated sediments, and exacerbate the problem of invasive species that come into the Great lakes in the ballast of ocean-ships.

In 2007, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Transport Canada released a report that took expansion off the table, instead focussing on improving the infrastructure already in place.

The environmental toll of the St. Lawrence Seaway has been dramatic. Construction dug new, deeper channels in the riverbed, flooded shallow sections, blasted away islands, displaced six villages and built a series of locks. With ocean vessels plying the Great Lakes, they also brought the greatest ecological nightmare to beset the region: aquatic invasive species.

Meanwhile, the economic performance of the Seaway has been lacklustre. Of the cargo moved across the five Great Lakes, less than 7 per cent is international goods being imported or exported on ocean-going vessels. When the Seaway was built it was heralded as opening the door to an economic renaissance. Instead, Congress forgave the $110 million construction debt in 1982, and the Corporation has never turned a profit. Today, it operates well below capacity.

To take action against this proposal go to savetheriver.org.

© 2009 Great Lakes News.