Great Lakes Shipping Worries about Tough Spring
Ice conditions have been causing concern for Great Lakes shipping industry. The satellite images show that the Great Lakes once again almost entirely covered in ice. Duluth News Tribune reports that the ice is causing worry in the Great Lakes shipping industry about the prospects of another difficult spring. According to Glen Nekvasil, vice president of the Lake Carriers' Association, it has been another brutal winter and if it keeps going it will be a challenging resumption to navigation when the vessels get going again in March. A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientist opined that ice on the lake at that time was…
Senators Seek Funding for Great Lakes Maintenance
A bipartisan group of Great Lakes senators, led by Great Lakes Task Force co-chairs Sen. Carl Levin and Sen. Mark Kirk, wrote today to Army Corps of Engineers leaders, urging them to direct additional funding for harbor maintenance projects to reduce the backlog of projects in the Great Lakes. The letter, from members of the Senate Great Lakes Task Force to Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Jo-Ellen Darcy and Chief of Engineers Lt. Gen. Thomas Bostick, asks that…
Lakes Coal Trade Impacted by Weather in June
Shipments of coal on the Great Lakes totaled 2.6 million tons in June, a decrease of 9.7 percent compared to May, and a drop of nearly 13 percent compared to a year ago. Some of the decrease was the result of a lengthy outage at the Lakes’ largest coal-shipping operation, Superior Midwest Energy Terminal in Superior, Wisconsin. Flooding after a torrential storm forced shipments to cease on June 19. The dock resumed loading on July 8. Overseas shipments continued in June. Coal shipped to Quebec City for reloading into oceangoing vessels totaled 246,000 tons.
Industry Looks to RAMP Act to Meet Dredging Needs
Silt accumulation and dredging that's been postponed for years have prevented the full use of U.S. waterways and ports, maritime industry leaders said last month. Hundreds of U.S. ports and harbors are meant to be maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to foster navigation. But many of the country's channels are not kept at their authorized depths, and last year the backlog of needed dredging projects swelled. Meanwhile, just over half the fees charged to shippers through the federal Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund are spent on maintenance and operations…
