Great Lakes News

Cargo moved by U.S.-flag Great Lakes freighters in March decreased 13 percent compared to a year ago, the Lake Carriers’ Association reported. However, the March float of 1.8 million tons topped the month’s five-year average by more than 15 percent.Iron ore cargos for steel production dominated the month. Cargos totaled 1.4 million tons, a decrease of 17 percent. That no iron ore moved from Escanaba, Mich., is a factor in the decrease. That port used to resume iron ore shipments in early to mid-March. However, the mine that shipped through Escanaba has been indefinitely idled.

The first ‘saltie’ of the 2018 commercial navigation season is on its way to the Port of Duluth-Superior. The 656-foot bulk carrier Federal Weser is scheduled to pass beneath Duluth’s Aerial Lift Bridge by 10 p.m. tonight and is expected to start loading Monday morning at the CHS terminal on the Superior side of the harbor. If all goes according to plan, the ship should depart late Tuesday or Wednesday with 21,400 metric tons of durum wheat bound for Algeria. The Federal Weser, part of the Fednav fleet, last visited the Twin Ports in 2015.

Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association is to present a public program featuring a range of important issues concerning the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes Symposium is a first-of-its- kind public program focusing on timely legal issues impacting the Great Lakes. Stakeholders will discuss topics ranging from the regulation of phosphorous discharged into the Great Lakes to the development of wind turbines and the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. The Symposium’s panel discussion will feature noted speakers on Great Lakes topics, including Director Chris Korleski (EPA Great Lakes National Program Office), Retired Congressman Steven LaTourette, Jim Weakley (Lake Carriers’ Association), Brian Cook (Ohio EPA), and Joel Brammeier (Alliance for the Great Lakes).

Congressman Brian M. Higgins (D-NY) has been honored for his support of Great Lakes shipping by the largest coalition representing the industry. The Congressman was named Great Lakes Legislator of the Year by Great Lakes Maritime Task Force (GLMTF). Rep. Higgins will formally receive the award at GLMTF’s 14th Annual Briefing for the Great Lakes Delegation in Washington on April 2, 2009. “As a native of Buffalo, Congressman Higgins has long understood that Great Lakes shipping is an asset to be treasured,” said Don Cree, President of GLMTF and President of the Toledo (Ohio) Port Council.

Rolls-Royce Commercial Marine Inc. has teamed up with Great Lakes Shipyard, a division of The Great Lakes Towing Company, Cleveland, OH to create a state-of-the-art marine service center to improve and grow their respective vessel repair and overhaul businesses in the Great Lakes Region. The long-term agreement, effective June 1, 2011 is the latest stage in the development of a global Marine Service Center network, which brings the expertise of Rolls-Royce engineers to customers around the world. Rolls-Royce has opened seven Marine Service Center in the last two years and the global network now includes facilities in 34 countries. Rolls-Royce is in the business of manufacturing and selling propulsion systems and machinery…

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) informs that Administrator Gina McCarthy has released a new Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) Action Plan that lays out steps that federal agencies will take during the next five years to protect water quality, control invasive species and restore habitat in the largest surface fresh water system in the world. McCarthy, who chairs the federal Great Lakes Interagency Task Force, released the plan at a meeting of Great Lakes Mayors in Chicago.

After one of the five coldest Decembers in recorded history, The Great Lakes Towing Company is finishing up one of its busiest seasons in recent history of icebreaking on the Great Lakes. While the U.S. Coast Guard's role in assisting ships through the ice of the Great Lakes is relatively well-known, few people outside the marine industry realize that U.S. Coast Guard assistance is provided mainly in the federally-maintained navigation channels, and that commercial tugboats with icebreaking capability, and their dedicated crews, assist as many, if not more, ships in harbors throughout the lakes each winter season. During the 2000-2001 winter to date, the tugboats of The Great Lakes Towing Company, an affiliate of The Great Lakes Group, have performed 290 vessels icebreaking assists.

The Great Lakes Towing Company and Great Lakes Shipyard have announced plans to hire 100 employees before the end of January 2018 to support continued growth driven by client demand. The company said it is seeking candidates to fill a wide range of positions, including shipyard welders, shipfitters and more. “At The Towing Company, we’re looking for great people to join our team,” said Joe Starck, the company’s president. Located in Cleveland, Ohio, The Towing Company is the owner and operator of the largest fleet of shipdocking tugboats on the U.S. Great Lakes-Saint Lawrence River Seaway.

Cleveland - The U.S. Maritime Administration and the U.S. Department of Transportation announced  that it had awarded a $1,068,474 grant from the Small Shipyard Grant Program to The Great Lakes Towing Company and its Shipyard in Cleveland, Ohio. The grant from the Maritime Administration will provide Great Lakes Shipyard, which is operated by The Great Lakes Towing Company, with funds to enhance lighting and purchase a burn table, a scissor lift, welding equipment, scaffolding, air skids, a boom lift, a generator and a self-propelled transporter. Great Lakes Shipyard, a division of The Great Lakes Towing Company, operates a full-service shipyard, specializing in new construction, repairs, and modifications of all types of vessels and barges.

The Great Lakes Ballast Water Working Group (BWWG) released its 2015 Summary of Great Lakes Seaway Ballast Water Management activities Thursday. During 2015, 100 percent of vessels bound for the Great Lakes Seaway from outside the Exclusive Economic Zone received a ballast water management exam. In total, the BWWG assessed all 8,361 ballast tanks on the 455 vessels that transited during the 2015 navigation season. The Great Lakes Seaway Ballast Water Working Group is a binational collection of representatives from the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation, Transport Canada - Marine Safety & Security and the Canadian St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corporation.

Great Lakes, Mississippi River Separation Threatens Jobs and Commerce, AWO Says. The American Waterways Operators strongly believes that effecting permanent physical separation between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River basins as advocated by the report released yesterday by the Great Lakes Commission and the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiatives is the wrong course of action for the thousands of people, from Illinois to Louisiana and beyond, who rely on the Chicago Area Waterways System for their livelihoods. The CAWS is the sole marine transportation link for billions of dollars in vital commodities and products moving between the Great Lakes and the entire Mississippi River system.

The Great Lakes Maritime Task Force (GLMTF) has expressed its disappointment that the second Poe-sized lock at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan did not receive any Federal stimulus dollars. GLMTF stated that Congress has strongly supported the project, authorizing the lock at full Federal expense in 2007, and approving tens of millions of dollars in Federal construction funding, including $17 million recently in the FY09 Appropriations Bill. “It is incomprehensible that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers did not include the new Soo lock in projects that will be funded from its share of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA),” said Donald Cree, President of Great Lakes Maritime Task Force, the largest coalition promoting waterborne commerce on the Great Lakes.

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The Canadian Great Lakes Pilotage Authority (GLPA) and the Great Lakes Pilotage Division of the U.S. Coast Guard have opened the 2017 shipping season using an upgraded Great Lakes Pilot Management System based on the latest version of Saab’s KleinPilot. The new system went live on schedule with the season opening. It is being used by the two organizations and the U.S. Great Lakes pilotage associations to manage the rostering and dispatch of the more than 100 marine pilots on the Great Lakes and automatically generate billing in accordance with the applicable tariffs.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced that two U.S. Areas of Concern, Deer Lake in the Lake Superior basin and White Lake in the Lake Michigan basin, have been removed from the binational list of toxic hotspots that were targeted for cleanup in the U.S.-Canada Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. After decades during which only one U.S. Area of Concern was delisted, federal agencies have accelerated cleanup actions during the past five years by using Great Lakes Restoration Initiative funding.

The Great Lakes shipping industry is calling on Congress to override President Bush's veto of legislation that will accelerate dredging and authorize construction of a second Poe-sized Lock at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. These provisions and others benefitting the Lakes are included in the Water Resources Development Act of 2007 recently vetoed by the President. The Water Resources Development Act of 2007 (H.R. 1495) was passed by wide margins in both the House and Senate. Lack of adequate dredging reportedly is forcing the largest U.S.-Flag vessels on the Lakes to lose 6,000 tons of cargo each trip. A second Poe-sized Lock at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, is one of the most important infrastructure improvements on the Great Lakes in decades.

A coalition of U.S. Great Lakes ports, vessel operating companies and maritime trade associations today filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia challenging the U.S. Coast Guard’s 2016 increase in Great Lakes pilotage rates, the American Great Lakes Ports Association (AGLPA) announced. The complaint was filed by a coalition including the AGLPA, along with the Shipping Federation of Canada and the U.S. Great Lakes Shipping Association, as well as vessel operating companies Fednav International Ltd…

Great Lakes Towing Company tugboats 'Wyoming' & 'Idaho' free the grounded freighter Spruceglen in Lake St. Claire. The Great Lakes Towing Company, which celebrates 115 years of service this year, provides tugboat and towing services, ship assist, logistics and cargo transportation, ice breaking, and emergency assistance of every kind of vessel, barge, and marine structure in 40 U.S. Great Lakes ports located on all five Great Lakes and in all eight U.S. Great Lakes States. The Company’s tugboat services cover more than 8,300 miles of shoreline and a water surface area of roughly 100,000 square miles, an area officially identified as the nations “fourth seacoast,” and equal in distance to any of the other seacoasts.

Toledo, Ohio – The end of the Great Lakes dredging crisis came a step closer to reality yesterday when the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 4348 and included a provision which could lead to substantially increased funding for Great Lakes dredging. The amendment directs that all funding collected in the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund be spent on dredging each year. Currently, the Fund has a $7 billion surplus. More than 16 million cubic yards of sediment clog Great Lakes ports and waterways because funding for dredging has been inadequate for decades. “Passage of H.R. 4348 with the Boustany amendment represents further progress in requiring that the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund monies all be spent on dredging each year…

American Steamship Company (ASC), a subsidiary of GATX Corporation, and Chicago’s John G. Shedd Aquarium are working collaboratively in pursuit of their common goal of protecting the Great Lakes, and now they’re taking that message to communities along the shores. One of ASC’s 1,000-foot vessels, the MV Indiana Harbor, is displaying each organization’s logo along with the slogan “Working Together to Keep the Lakes Great.” The vessel travels throughout the Great Lakes region including ports in western Lake Superior, southern Lake Michigan, Detroit and Cleveland.

The Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure conducted a hearing on Asian carp and the Great Lakes. In his statement, Representative James Oberstar (D-MN) discussed the threat posed by the Asian carp to the Great Lakes ecosystem. Cameron Davis, Senior Advisor, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), testified concerning EPA’s role in the process and the draft Asian Carp Control Strategy Framework. MGEN John Peabody, US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), testified concerning USACE’s efforts to date and its plans for upcoming efforts to stop the Asian carp from entering the Great Lakes via the Chicago Sanitary & Ship Canal. Mr.

The first exhaustive economic activity study of the Great Lakes cruise industry has just been completed and the results are substantially ahead of expectations, according to Stephen Burnett, Executive Director of the Great Lakes Cruising Coalition (GLCC), a non profit organization devoted to growing the cruise industry on the Great Lakes. Burnett comments. “Our organization realized that in order to grow the overnight cruise industry, the major industry stakeholders would need to a definitive financial picture of what this actually represents for both the tourism and marine based segments of this industry.” The study, which was authorized by the directors of the Great Lakes Cruising Coalition (GLCC)…

According to reports, a growing number of scientists, advocacy groups and public officials believe that it's time for man to think seriously about separating the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basins. It may be the best way, they say, to stop the spread of invasive species between the basins. The Alliance for the Great Lakes has launched the first study. With $125,000 in funding from the Great Lakes Fishery Trust, Great Lakes Fishery Commission and the US-Canada International Joint Commission, the Chicago-based Alliance for the Great Lakes will spend the next year studying the feasibility of permanently separating the two watersheds. Source: NSNet