Ashtabula/Defiance end Soo Locks Shipping Season
The Soo Locks are officially closed to shipping traffic as of 10 a.m. today, Monday. They were originally scheduled to close at 11:59 p.m. Sunday night, but the tug/barge Ashtabula/Defiance left Superior, WI, late due to loading and weather delays
The tug/barge closed out the 2022-2023 navigation season carrying the season’s final load, 24,680 long tons of taconite, which was headed for Burns Harbor, IN.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which operates and maintains the locks, makes exceptions such as this to keep the locks open a little longer to make sure late-running vessels lock through.
Only one operating laker is left above Gros Cap, the Saginaw loaded with iron ore for Algoma Steel. After she unloads late Monday, she will make another run up to Superior, WI, for another cargo of ore for the steel plant. She will lay up at either Algoma or at Thunder Bay.
Some 150 employees will now focus on the needed repairs and updates to the larger Poe Lock and the smaller MacArthur Lock. “Crews will be in today to set the bridge across the Poe Lock. That will be the first step,” Jeff Harrington, Sault Project Office Operations Branch Chief said.
“And with that in place, and some of the other preparations that are already being made, they are removing deck plates and removing snow and ice.” Harrington added that the construction of the new Soo Lock will continue as planned through the winter.
TV 9&10, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Detroit District
Tug Seahound sinks at Port Maitland
The McKeil Marine/Nadro Marine Services tug Seahound has sunk at Port Maitland, ON. Images on social media Monday showed her mostly submerged, with a crew working to mediate any pollution and determine a salvage plan. No further details are known at this time. The 65-foot tug was built in 1971, and is active in the Welland Canal area, often assisting vessels headed for scrap at Marine Recycling Corp. at Port Colborne.
Vision being developed for fledgling Great Lakes Authority
The Great Lakes region is in the early stages of knitting together economic development, transportation, and environmental improvement programs in a way that could leverage more federal investment and foster networking between academic and private-industry researchers.
But several people interviewed about the new Great Lakes Authority agree the success or failure of it will hinge on how ambitious and visionary it becomes as it is put together over the next couple of years.
“The devil’s in the details,” said Mark Fisher, chief executive officer of the Council of the Great Lakes Region in Cleveland.
For starters, the recently approved Great Lakes Authority will need to overcome somewhat of an identity crisis and distinguish itself from the similar-sounding Great Lakes Water Authority, created in 2016 as an independent body to streamline response to water and sewage programs in Detroit and other southeast Michigan communities.
That particular regional authority has a 40-year license for control of the financially strapped Detroit Water and Sewer Department, as well as major water mains, sewage interceptors, and related facilities for $50 million a year.
Read the rest of this story here: https://www.toledoblade.com/local/environment/2023/01/15/vision-being-developed-for-fledgling-great-lakes-authority-that-congress-approved/stories/20230113112
