Fire-damaged bulker Tecumseh going to scrap this fall
Nearly four years after an engine room fire sent her to the wall, Lower Lakes Towing’s 50-year-old bulker Tecumseh has officially reached the end of the line.
Marine Recycling Corporation owner Wayne Elliott broke the news in a Facebook post late Friday night, announcing that the fire-damaged vessel will be towed from her berth at Ashtabula, Ohio, to nearby Port Colborne, Ontario, before the end of September. There, like fleetmates Ojibway and Manistee just before her, Tecumseh will be torn apart by the torch, shredded with the shear, and fed to the furnaces for a fiery rebirth.
The 1973-built bulker was launched in Seattle, Washington, as the oceangoing Sugar Islander. Later sailing under the names Islander, Judy Litrico, and Tina Litrico, the vessel was sold to Lower Lakes Towing in 2010 and renamed Tecumseh, officially entering Great Lakes service in April 2012. She would serve the Canadian grain trade for the better part of the decade.
While sailing down the Detroit River with canola on December 15, 2019, Tecumseh suffered a severe fire originating in her engine room. No injuries were reported, but damage to the engine control room was extensive. The stricken vessel was laid-up for the winter at Windsor, Ontario, and later brought to Ashtabula, Ohio, under tow the following April.
Tecumseh has remained motionless since with her fate uncertain… and now sealed.
Joshua Hebeisen
New stone breakwater to be installed at Buffalo’s Outer Harbor
The US. Army Corps of Engineers is taking a step toward protecting the wetland ecosystem of Lake Erie.
The agency says more than $5 million will cover construction costs of a new stone breakwater at Buffalo’s Outer Harbor.
“This is just the first visible step of a project that will revive the natural aquatic habitat on Buffalo’s Outer Harbor,” said Lt. Col. Colby Krug, commander of the USACE Buffalo District. “I hope all fellow Buffalonians and visitors to the waterfront will join us in envisioning the positive impact this project will have on generations of people, plants, and wildlife.”
The plans for the project look to reverse decades of industrial development and hardening of the Outer Harbor shorelines, which have been harmful to fish and other species in the area.
The breakwater, which will be installed near the now-abandoned ship slip three, will connect to Lake Erie and create a new habitat.
“Under the leadership of the Army Corps Buffalo District, this project brings new life to the slip next to Wilkeson Pointe and continues to build on Buffalo’s waterfront revival,” said Congressman Brian Higgins. “This is yet another example of how the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, which saw funding boosted through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, is directly benefiting Western New York.”
The Army Corps of Engineers says it will not only be beneficial for aquatic species, but also birds.
Construction is slated to start early this fall and will be finished in November.
U.S. House passes James bill requiring Soo Locks security study
Washington ― The U.S. House on Wednesday passed a bill directing completion of a new study of potential security shortfalls at the Soo Locks, as well as the supply chain and economic impacts of a potential failure at the Great Lakes shipping lock complex at Sault Ste. Marie.
The legislation, passed by voice vote, is the first by freshman U.S. Rep. John James, R-Shelby Township, to pass the chamber. The bill’s co-sponsors include U.S. Reps. Jack Bergman, R-Watersmeet; Dan Kildee, D-Flint Township; and Hillary Scholten, D-Grand Rapids.
The bill directs the secretaries of transportation and defense, in coordination with the commandant of the Coast Guard, to present the study to Congress within a year of enactment, asking the agencies to also recommend measures to strengthen security at the shipping lock complex and to reduce impacts to supply chains in the event of a Soo Locks failure or attack.
Previous studies of the potential economic consequences of a Soo Locks failure have been conducted by the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The corps in 2018 concluded that unexpected outage of the 1,200-foot-long Poe lock would create a “bottleneck,” disrupting the supply chain for steel production and thus manufacturing in North America — particularly the auto industry.
A 2015 Department of Homeland Security report that found no alternative transportation mode exists for getting iron ore from Minnesota mines to steel mills on the lower Great Lakes.
“A six-month shutdown would be disastrous. It would cause recessions, close factories, shutter mines,” James told reporters on a Tuesday phone call. “Around 11 million jobs could be lost nationwide. That’s massive. That’s more than the entirety of Michigan’s population. … This is why we must pass this legislation.”
He emphasized how the security landscape, especially in terms of cyber and drone threats, has changed in the eight years since the Homeland Security study was conducted. “The world’s a completely different place,” James said.
Among the recommendations that James is hoping to see from the report is assigning next-generation fighter aircraft and a hypersonic mission to Selfridge Air National Guard Base in his district in Harrison Township “to cover our vital infrastructure” at the Soo Locks.
Bergman, whose district includes the Soo Locks, anticipated a “lop-sided” House vote in favor of the bill. He urged his Senate colleagues to pass it, as well.
“Although a lack of investment by the Biden administration has pushed back project completion, we still have the requirement to ensure the locks are secure and identify any critical, vulnerable areas where improvement may be needed, now even during the construction phase,” Bergman said.
Bergman was referring to the massive $3 billion project underway at the shipping lock complex on the St. Mary’s River that connects Lake Superior to the lower Great Lakes. Plans call for a new 1,200-foot-long lock to mirror the aging Poe lock, which is the only one at the shipping complex big enough to handle the largest Great Lakes freighters that carry 71% of the tonnage that traverses the corridor.
The new lock under construction would provide redundancy, so cargo could keep moving in the case of an unexpected outage of the aging Poe, built in 1968.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated the study and report would cost less than $500,000, though a separate appropriation would still be needed.
New Great Lakes maritime facility could change export game for ag producers in northern states
Officials of Port Milwaukee and The DeLong Co., Inc. recently celebrated the grand opening of the $40-million Agricultural Maritime Export Facility. They were joined by Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson, and federal, state, and local officials to welcome the single largest investment in the port since the 1950s.
The facility, located on the west side of Jones Island, will be one of the first on the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway system to handle various agricultural commodities via truck, rail and international vessel, including dried distillers grains with solubles, a high-nutrient animal feed supplement derived as a byproduct of ethanol refining.
The new transload facility has a storage capacity of 30,000 metric tons of DDGs or 45,000 tons of soybeans and can serve outbound vessels with a capacity between 7,000 and 22,000 metric tons. It can load 1,000 metric tons an hour. It includes rail and truck gravity dump hoppers connected to a conveyer system to transport the material into a fabric storage building.
Inside the fabric building, a reclaim system conveys product to be loaded into bulk material cargo vessels or barges. The facility is fully operational and in June 2023 successfully loaded its first vessel of Wisconsin-produced DDGs, made with corn from Wisconsin. The first vessel, the Ebroborg, was loaded with 7,250 metric tons—the equivalent of 330 trucks or 92 rail cars—of Wisconsin-produced DDGs during the end of June and arrived in Belfast, United Kingdom, in mid-July.
No other facilities on the Great Lakes can load entire vessels of DDGs or other feed ingredients. Future service at the facility may include the export of Wisconsin-grown soybeans, corn and grain. The agricultural “draw area” will depend on the product, but will include Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota and possibly Illinois. Currently most DDGs produced in Wisconsin, Minnesota, or Iowa are shipped by container to southeast Asia or by barge down the Mississippi to be loaded into bulk vessels for export.
Thanks to a public-private partnership, this development is the largest one-time investment in Port Milwaukee since the 1950s. Port Milwaukee was one of the first nationwide grant recipients of the Port Infrastructure Development Program through the U.S. Department of Transportation. Additional facility funding was provided by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, Port Milwaukee, and The DeLong Co., Inc.
“Milwaukee is the economic engine for our state and region. This addition to the port’s operations will expand a strong partnership that includes The DeLong Co., the City of Milwaukee, our state and federal partners, Wisconsin agriculture, and world markets,” said Johnson. “Thank you to our many partners for advancing this continued growth at Port Milwaukee.”
“We want to thank the City of Milwaukee for their partnership on this project. We look forward to being part of the community,” said Bo DeLong, vice president of grain, The DeLong Co., Inc.
“Port Milwaukee is an integral link in the Wisconsin economy. In this case, we are connecting Wisconsin farmers, growers, and producers with new international markets,” said Jackie Q. Carter, director of Port Milwaukee.
The Wisconsin Department of Transportation has estimated the DeLong terminal will generate $63 million in new statewide economic impact annually, increasing exports through Port Milwaukee by as much as 400,000 metric tons per year.
“This new facility will have a tremendous impact here in the local Milwaukee community and around the state and will help ensure more of our farmers’ best-in-class, Wisconsin-made goods will be shared with folks all over the world,” said Gov. Evers. “I want to congratulate the DeLong Company, Port Milwaukee, and everyone that played a role in getting this project over the finish line.”
“The facility is among the first on the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway system that can handle a variety of agricultural commodities via truck, rail and international vessels,” said Wisconsin Transportation Secretary Craig Thompson. “It’s an important new resource for both shipping and agriculture, and its impact will be felt statewide.”
Port Milwaukee is governed by a seven-member Board of Harbor Commissioners, a panel appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the Common Council. It administers operations on the 467 acres that make up the Port.
The DeLong Co., Inc. is a sixth-generation family-owned business headquartered in Clinton, Wisconsin, operating 37 locations around the United States and comprising six divisions of agricultural and logistical sales and services: grain, exports, agronomy, seed, transportation and wholesale feed. Over the last 20 years, DeLong has grown to become a leader in containerized agricultural exports. With transload facilities around the country, it is the largest U.S. exporter of containerized agricultural products and the fifth largest container exporter overall of products originating from the U.S.
