Winter lay-up list for Sturgeon Bay

Here is the unofficial winter lay-up list for Bay Shipbuilding Co. Times are subject to change. DD means vessel is scheduled for drydocking.

WINTER FLEET 2022-2023

KEY LAKES                                   Estimated Arrival
CASON J. CALLAWAY                  IN
EDWIN H. GOTT                            12/27           DD
JOHN G. MUNSON                         1/16

AMERICAN STEAMSHIP
WALTER J. McCARTHY                 1/16               DD
INDIANA HARBOR                         1/16               DD

CENTRAL MARINE
JOSEPH L. BLOCK                         1/16
WILFRED SYKES                           1/16

INTERLAKE  
MARK W. BARKER                       1/16
MESABI MINER                             1/16

VanENKEVORT T/B 
BARGE ERIE TRADER                   1/16              DD
BARGE JOSEPH THOMPSON          1/16              DD
TUG LAURA VAN ENKEVORT       1/16           DD
TUG CLYDE VAN ENKEVORT        1/16             DD
BARGE GREAT LAKES TRADER    1/16
TUG JOYCE VAN ENKEVORT         1/16

TRIAD SEA CORP
MAJESTIC STAR 1                            IN
MAJESTIC STAR 11                            IN

Saltie BBC Kwiatkowski  aground in Seaway

The cargo ship BBC Kwiatkowski ran aground Sunday afternoon off Montreal-East. Tuesday morning, December 20, she had not yet been refloated. She is on the south side of the St. Lawrence River near Dufault Island, part of the Îles de Boucherville. She was en route to Antwerp, Belgium from Port Colborne but with a stopover in Montreal. On the scene this morning was the tug Ocean Pierre Julien.

Rene Beauchamp

Toledo port board awards $9.6M in contracts for new liquids depot

Construction of a new facility for storing and transferring bulk liquids at the Port of Toledo is slated to start in the spring after the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority’s board of directors awarded two contracts totaling nearly $10 million Thursday morning.

Under the larger of the two, Industrial Power Systems, Inc., of Rossford, will be paid $6,386,717 to prepare the site, build foundations, detention basins, and pipe racks, grade and install railroad spurs, and install fire-suppression systems and utilities. Nooter Toledo, meanwhile, received a $3,200,185 contract for building the pipes used for handling products and for vapor control, installation of power, communication, and lighting systems, and other mechanical and electrical work.

The winning bid from Industrial Power Systems was the lower of two the port authority received for that contract, and the Nooter bid was the lowest of three. Both came in slightly below engineers’ estimates for construction cost.

Brian Perz, the port authority’s director of facilities and development services, said he expected contract documents to be signed in January, followed by springtime construction. The work will take “all of 2023 for sure, if not into ’24,” he said.

The facility will have a single, 2.1-million-gallon tank, which will be provided by Midwest Terminals of Toledo International, which operates the general-cargo dock under a port authority contract.

The facility will add a new dimension to cargo-handling capability at the port authority’s general-cargo dock near the Maumee River’s mouth, which historically has handled mainly metals, dry-bulk commodities such as sugar and petroleum coke, machinery and industrial components, including wind-turbine towers, and a smattering of other cargoes like imported lumber.

Among the more common liquid bulk commodities shipped on the Great Lakes are petroleum products and liquid fertilizers. Joe Cappel, the port authority’s vice president for business development, said the new facility will not be dedicated to any particular product.

“The tank will be versatile enough to handle a wide range of liquid products that are transported in bulk,” he said. “Liquid bulk products can be transloaded from rail cars, trucks, and barges through this tank.”

The facility’s construction is part of more than $20 million in improvements the port authority is making at the dock, funded almost entirely with federal and state grants. Already underway is the reconstruction of its dock face and adjoining surface, including replacement of on-dock railroad tracks and removal of the rails once used by the facility’s traveling cranes, which have since been replaced with mobile cranes.

Toledo Blade

Coast Guard Begins Icebreaking Operations in Western Great Lakes

SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. – U.S. Coast Guard Sector Sault Sainte Marie has commenced OperationTaconite, the Coast Guard’s largest domestic icebreaking operation, in response to expanded ice growth in the commercial ports of Western Lake Superior.

U.S. Coast Guard Cutter SPAR is assigned to manage the ice breaking needs of Western Lake Superior, specifically the twin ports of Duluth, MN and Superior, WI. As ice coverage expands, U.S. Coast Guard officials will assign additional assets.

Operation Taconite is the Coast Guard’s largest domestic icebreaking operation. The operation encompasses Lake Superior, St. Marys River, the Straits of Mackinac, Georgian Bay, and all of Lake Michigan. Various commercial waterways may close after due consideration is given to the protection of the marine environment, the need for cross-channel traffic (e.g. ferries) and the safety of the island residents; who in the course of their daily business use naturally formed ice bridges for transportation to and from the mainland.

The implementation of Operation Taconite places additional movement criteria on commercial ships plying the Western Lakes, St. Marys River, and the Straits of Mackinac. These measures may include restricting tanker transits to daylight in the presence of ice, reducing speeds by 2 miles per hour in specified locations to reduce incidental ice breaking, and requiring additional voice and position reporting points throughout the operation’s area of responsibility.

U.S. Coast Guard

SATURDAY MORNING UPDATE: Despite a report Friday from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (see below), the Herbert C. Jackson entered the MacArthur Lock before the set closing time of 7 a.m. Saturday. She reported upbound at Mission Point around 6:15 a.m. and was dispatched to the Mac Lock. Per radio traffic from the lockmaster, the MacArthur will continue to be used until Monday morning, when the vehicle bridge will be placed above the upper gates.

Frontenac closes MacArthur Lock for season

SAULT STE. MARIE, MI – The last MacArthur Lock passage of the season was the CSL vessel Frontenac, heading upbound. The Soo Locks’ MacArthur Lock will be closed to marine traffic 7:00 a.m. Dec. 17, 2022, through 12:01 a.m. April 24, 2023 to perform critical maintenance.

The Poe Lock will remain open until 11:59 p.m. Jan. 15, 2023, or until commercial traffic ceases, whichever occurs first.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Great Lakes cargo shipments are down 6.82% this year.

Ships have carried 31.53 million tons of cargo to ports including the Ports of Indiana-Burns Harbor and the Port of Chicago, down from 33.84 million tons last year.

Ports of the Great Lakes traded with at least 19 countries via the St. Lawrence Seaway during November, up from 18 the previous month.

“Shipping on the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway System depends on the capabilities of a network of highly capable ports that help feed the world and empower our economy at home,” said Adam Tindall-Schlicht, administrator of the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corp. “The November tonnage report is another indicator that international supply chains through Great Lakes ports are diverse and reliable as we near the close of the 2022 shipping season.”

Transits rose 1.71% to 3,502 so far this year, up from 3,443 during the same time in 2021.

Shipments of grain are down 2.61%, according to the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corp. Shipments of coke are up 15.97%, potash 184.65%, salt 17.23%, petroleum products 27.45% and general cargo 135.66%.

The Illinois International Port District handled many steel products last month.

“We’ve seen significant regional supply chain diversions this year, which has positioned Chicago as a key destination for commodities like steel, plywood, sugar, and non-ferrous metals,” said Erik A. Varela, executive director of the Illinois International Port District. “Thankfully we’ve been up to the task and have been able to help deliver these commodities that uplift the region’s economy.”

The steel trade has remained robust on the Great Lakes, to the point where it’s funding reinvestment in capital projects at the ports.

“We are handling about 20% more cargo since the Cleveland Cliffs HBI plant went into production at the Port of Toledo two years ago,” said Joseph Cappel, vice president of business development for the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority. “We will build on our new baseline by continuing to make improvements to our dock and material handling capabilities making the necessary investments that will modernize our facilities. The acquisition of a Liebherr 550 mobile harbor crane, the reconstruction of the dock wall at Midwest Terminals, a new conveyor system, and the addition of a multi-modal liquid bulk transload facility represent over $32 million in recent project investment at the Port of Toledo.”

NWI Times

Repairs Continue on Algoma Compass

HAMILTON, ON – Work is continuing repairing damaged incurred by Algoma Compass when she hit a bridge abutment in the Welland Canal Nov. 21.

See image gallery for photos by Kristine Schneider.

MacArthur Lock closing for seasonal repair, maintenance

SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. – The Soo Locks’ MacArthur Lock will close to marine traffic 7:00 a.m. Dec. 17, 2022, through 12:01 a.m. April 24, 2023, to perform critical maintenance.

The Poe Lock will remain open until 11:59 p.m. Jan. 15, 2023, or until commercial traffic ceases, whichever occurs first. The operating season is fixed by federal regulation and is driven in part by vessel operability in typical ice conditions.

“The 800-foot-long MacArthur Lock, built in 1943, is 79 years old; the maintenance period is critical to keeping the lock in operation during the shipping season,” Maintenance Branch Chief Nicholas (Nick) Pettit said.

Pettit, new Maintenance Branch Chief at the Soo Locks will oversee the team executing this year’s seasonal repairs.

Storm on Upper Great Lakes Sends Vessels to Shelter

Easterly winds on the northern Great Lakes have sent many vessels to anchor, or to set courses that bring them into the lee of the land.

As of 10 am. Thursday:
Anchored off Superior, WI: CSL Assiniboine, Presque Isle, Joyce L. VanEnkevort. CSL Niagara remains at the ore dock.
Western Lake Superior off Sand Island: John G. Munson, Walter J. McCarthy Jr.
East of Ashland, WI: Rt. Hon. Paul J. Martin
West side of Keweenaw Peninsula: Stewart J. Cort, Algoma Guardian, Edgar B. Speer
Above the Soo Locks: Mark W. Barker, Florence Spirit, Capt. Henry Jackman, Resko, Hon. James L. Oberstar, American Century
Above DeTour: John J Boland, American Mariner, Joseph L. Block, Lee A. Tregurtha, Manitowoc
Off Cockburn Island: Manitoulin
Straits: Great Republic, H. Lee White, Arthur M. Anderson

GALE WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 7 PM EST THURSDAY
WHAT…Highest gusts up to 45 kts from the east and highest waves around 8 feet.
WHERE…Whitefish Bay (U. S. Portion)/Whitefish Point to Point Iroquois MI and St. Marys River Point Iroquois to E. Potagannissing Bay.

One vessel was moving in the St. Marys River Thursday morning. MIchipicoten arrived at unload at Algoma Steel. She will stay there until the wind moderates.

Lakes Limestone Trade Down in November

CLEVELAND — Shipments of limestone on the Great Lakes totaled 2.5 million tons in November, a decrease of 24 percent compared to a year ago.  Limestone cargos were 15.1 percent below the month’s 5-year average.

Loadings from U.S. quarries decreased 23.1 percent from 2021 to 2.1 million tons.  Shipments from Canadian quarries totaled 450,529 tons, a decrease of 28 percent.

Year-to-date the limestone trade stands at nearly 27.5 million tons, a decrease of 1.6 percent compared to a year ago.  Loadings from Michigan and Ohio quarries decreased by less than 1 percent to nearly 22 million tons, while shipments from Ontario quarries total 5.6 million tons, a decrease of 4 percent from 2021.

Lake Carriers’ Association

Soo Locks Construction Project Enters Third Phase Amid Skyrocketing Costs

SAULT STE. MARIE, MI – As work on the new Soo Lock in Sault Ste. Marie shifts towards nearly a decade of construction, it’s facing a wave of new problems nearly every sector is dealing with, including increased costs and a lack of workers.

Construction on the new Soo Lock began in 2018. The project was broken into three phases, and phase two is nearing completion. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is preparing to begin phase three soon, which is expected to be completed in 2030. “The bulk of the work will kick off in April,” said project engineer Kristina Schnettler. “So, most of our work will happen from April into December each year, with some work happening from December to April if the winter allows it.”

Phase three is expected to be the most work intensive portion of the construction effort. And with rising construction costs, as well as worker shortages, the total cost projection for the project has nearly tripled in the past few years.

“We’re working on getting reauthorized at about $3.2 billion, where previously we were authorized at $922 million,” Schnettler said. “So, we did see quite a cost increase, and a lot of that is due to inflation and also a national workforce shortage and other market stabilization issues that we’re seeing across the country.”

The adjustment was made back in the winter of 2021, while the third phase’s contract was being reassessed. The Army Corps will need to continue looking for funding each year in order to keep up with the price tag.

The Corps should also receive over $200 million from the Defense Act and the Water Resources Development Act, which passes every two years.

“To date, we’ve received $1.585 billion of that $3.2 billion” Schnettler said. “About $700 million of that is for the construction itself, and the rest of that is contingency money for if we see any changes on the project or any additional work we need to do.”

Schnettler said the hope is always to stay below their total funding. But considering recent economic trends, it’s better to be prepared and make sure this piece of critical infrastructure is completed.

The second and third phase of construction will overlap when work starts back up in the spring. Phase two should wrap up by 2024.

Up North Live

Defense bill includes new $3.2B spending limit for Soo Lock project

WASHINGTON, DC – The defense policy bill approved Thursday by the House includes new spending authorization for the ongoing project to build a new Soo Lock at $3.2 billion, which is triple what it had been expected to cost but should allow construction to stay on track.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had requested the reauthorization this fall, citing record levels of inflation, a “robust” construction workload across the country and a national labor shortage as contributing to the cost increase, as well as modifications to the design to improve safety and operability

U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a Lansing Democrat who has long supported the project, said Thursday the reauthorization language is “really good news.”

“This allows the project to get done,” Stabenow told The Detroit News. “The most important thing is that there’s a full commitment from the Congress, from the Army Corps of Engineers, from the administration. So it’s not going to be stop-start, which has been of concern to me.”

Roughly $1.585 billion has already been allocated to the project, which would modernize the shipping lock complex on the St. Marys River in the Upper Peninsula connecting Lake Superior to the lower Great Lakes. The government has stressed the critical role the shipping channel plays in the North American economy and the nation’s supply chain of iron ore for manufacturing.

Stabenow added that she’s working with the House and Senate appropriations panels to ensure funding for the project is included in the omnibus spending bill for fiscal 2023.

Detroit News

U.S. Steel casting pig iron in major milestone at new Gary Works facility

U.S. Steel’s new pig iron facility at Gary Works steel mill recently reached a major milestone when the $60 million pig caster produced its first batch of pig iron.

It has since cast several full ladles, totaling more than 1,000 tons of pig iron.

Scott Buckiso, a U. S. Steel senior vice president and the chief manufacturing officer of the North American Flat-Rolled Segment, said the achievements were months ahead of schedule.

“Congratulations to the entire team at Gary Works on achieving this latest milestone,” he said. “Thanks to strong leadership and tremendous collaboration across the plant and at the project site, we’re well on our way to delivering on a key aspect of our Best for All strategy and doing so safely, ahead of schedule and on budget.”

U.S. Steel continues to ramp up the pig caster at the steel mill at 1 N. Broadway in downtown Gary. It plans to begin full production sometime in the first half of next year.

The new pig caster converts iron ore, hauled by lake freighters across Lake Michigan, into pig iron to feed its new electric arc furnaces in Arkansas as well as its blast furnaces.

U.S. Steel President and CEO David Burritt visited the steel mill on the Lake Michigan lakefront earlier this year for the groundbreaking of the project. He said it would “create the necessary material for our lower-emissions electric arc furnaces” and “is the perfect example of combining the best of integrated and mini-mill technologies.”

It is supplied by iron ore from U.S. Steel’s mines in Minntac and Keetac in Northern Minnesota’s Iron Range. It will produce up to 500,000 tons of pig iron a year, producing 50% of the metallics needed for the steelmaker’s new Big River Steel Works.

NWI Times

St. Lawrence Seaway closing December 31

The shipping season is once again coming to an end.

For the 2022 navigation season, all vessels have been directed by Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway officials to clear the seaway by 11:59 p.m. on December 20, according to a Seaway notice.

The closing period officially began on December 1 and will continue until the last ship has completed its transit.

The Montreal-Lake Ontario section of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway System is set to close on Saturday, December 31.

This means that all vessels must be out of this portion of the seaway by noon on December 31. Officials stated that any transit of the Montreal-Lake Ontario section after December 24 will have to have a prior written agreement.

Corporations have also waived operational surcharges for vessels from December 21 to December 24.

Regarding the rest of the Seaway, the Welland Canal portion is set to close at noon on Saturday, January 7, 2023. The Sault Ste. Marie Locks and Canal will close on Sunday, January 15, 2023.

The full closing notice can be found on the Seaway’s website.

Inform NNY 

Coast guards in Canada and U.S. working together to protect Great Lakes

Shared waters from the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, Beaufort Sea, through to the Great Lakes will be protected from threats of pollution under an agreement between the Canadian and U.S. coast guards.

Last month, Canadian Coast Guard Commissioner Mario Pelletier and U.S. coast guard Commandant Admiral Linda L. Fagan renewed the Canada-United States Joint Marine Pollution Contingency Plan.

“The agreement reflects the excellent continuing bilateral collaboration between our two organizations, including in preparedness and response to marine pollution incidents in our shared waters,” said Pelletier, in a release from the Canadian Coast Guard.

It provides a co-ordinated system for planning, preparedness and response to spills occurring in the waters between the two countries, a release said.

Pelletier said the plan represents a model framework for how two like-minded countries can work effectively together with a common purpose.

The plan allows for a co-ordinated mechanism for planning, preparing for and responding to spills in transboundary waters and establishes procedures for the co-ordination of spill response efforts between the two nations.

Fagan said it signifies the excellent partnership between the two agencies and advances their preparedness for responding to transboundary oil spills and marine incidents.

“The U.S. coast guard looks forward to continuing our collaborative work to protect our shared maritime environment,” she said.

The two agencies work closely together on a wide range of coast guard services, including environmental response, search and rescue, icebreaking, marine traffic management and aids to navigation.

Welland Tribune

Lake Superior gains astounding 6 trillion gallons in same time Lakes Michigan, Huron lose 7 trillion

Lake Superior’s water level has moved dramatically in the opposite direction from the other four Great Lakes.

The Great Lakes are in the normal seasonal decline. As the air turns colder, precipitation amounts are lower. At the same time, the big temperature difference between near the water surface and higher altitudes creates more evaporation. Lake Superior water levels and the rest of the Great Lakes usually decline from November to December.

This year, Lake Superior declined one inch from November to December. The rule of thumb from Keith Kompoltowicz of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is one inch of water on Lake Superior equals 550 billion gallons of water. Lake Superior lost 550 billions gallons of water then in the last 30 days.

Last week I wrote how Lakes Michigan and Huron actually declined quite a bit for November, losing over 3 trillion gallons of water.

When we look at the bigger picture of water level movement on the Great Lakes, most of the Great Lakes had receding water levels in the past year. This is not the case for Lake Superior.

Lake Superior is now 11 inches higher than this time last year. With the rule of thumb for gallons per inch, Lake Superior now holds around 6 trillion gallons more water than December 2022.

The lake level graph for Lakes Michigan and Lake Huron looks much different. Lake Michigan and Lake Huron are nine inches lower than December 2021. This represents a decrease of 7 trillion gallons of water over the past year.

While the rest of the Great Lakes are falling, Lake Superior is rising.

The reason is simple, according to Kompoltowicz. Lake Superior’s drainage basin had above normal amounts of precipitation while Lake Michigan and Lake Huron had less precipitation than normal.

The chart above shows Lake Superior’s basin had one inch more rain than normal for November. Over the past year, Lake Superior has had 100 percent of its average precipitation. At the same time, Lakes Michigan and Huron had only 70 percent of average rainfall. In the past 12 months Lake Michigan and Lake Huron only received 88 percent of normal precipitation.

MLive

Saltie Patagonman Grounds in Seaway after Engine Trouble

The saltwater vessel Patagonman ran aground below Cote St Catherine Lock in the Seaway Sunday due to engine trouble. All traffic was stopped until the Groupe Ocean tugs Ocean K. Rusby and Ocean Pierre Julien arrived to pull her free in the evening, after which docked at  Baillargeon Pier. Marine Traffic lists the 2019-built vessel, formerly named San, as owned by Polish Shipping Co. (POLSTEAM).

Jean-Denis Landry, Ron Beaupre

Removal of Abandoned Tugboat Donny S Stalled

BAILEYS HARBOR, WI – The Donny S tugboat, abandoned in Baileys Harbor for about a year now, was built in Texas in 1950 and retired from service in the late 2010s after a long career on the Great Lakes, according to a Great Lakes tugs and workboats database that contains the boat’s history. She was sold in 2021 and towed to Baileys Harbor, according to that history, where she was expected to be scrapped – and where she remains.

Though it was supposed to be removed on Dec. 4, an abandoned tugboat remains a fixture on the water near Baileys Harbor Yacht Club. 

The 143-foot-long Donny S has been moored in Baileys Harbor for over a year, according to Mike Kahr, who owns property nearby. Kahr has watched the boat being battered by storms and was concerned it would eventually end up as wreckage on the beach. 

“It’s not a question of if, but when, it ends up scattered on the beach,” said Kahr, who has contacted the Coast Guard and the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to try to have the boat removed. 

Even if the boat remained in the water, DNR conservation warden Mike Neal said it could present an environmental hazard. As boats deteriorate, they may leak fuels or other hazardous materials into the water. They also obstruct navigation. That’s why state statutes prohibit abandoning watercraft.

“It’s like leaving a wrecked car alongside the road,” Neal said.

Removing this boat proved more difficult than simply towing an abandoned car. The DNR gave the owner a series of deadlines. None of those were met, so the DNR issued citations for obstruction of navigable waterways to push the issue. Those were supposed to lead to the most recent date for removal, Dec. 4, which didn’t happen.

The boat is a hull with no engine, so it will have to be towed, according to Neal. To tow an abandoned boat, the U.S. Coast Guard has to issue a towing plan, do an inspection to determine possible environmental hazards and have five licensed people on the vessel before the boat can be removed.

Neal said he did not know why the boat wasn’t removed as planned on Dec. 4. The Pulse reached out to the Coast Guard to learn the status of the towing plan but did not hear back by deadline. Neither is the name of the owner known – Neal said he could not divulge the name and the Pulse is awaiting word from Madison. 

The owner of the boat is a Baileys Harbor resident, Neal said, but it took him awhile to trace the ownership. The vessel is a federally-documented boat, so the Coast Guard — not the state of Wisconsin — deals with its registration. Neal ran the boat’s numbers in the Coast Guard’s system and found that the boat changed ownership several times. Because of that, Neal spent around four months contacting people throughout the country to try to figure out the boat’s current owner.

“It comes back to this entity in Ohio,” Neal said. “You call that company, they say, ‘no, we sold it.’ You’re just chasing dead ends all the time.”

Neal speculated that the owner abandoned the boat after learning the process of disassembling it for scrap steel would be more involved than anticipated.

“I’m assuming at some point, they just got to a point where it was no longer cost-effective for them to try and [scrap] it,” Neal said.

Door County Pulse

DTE Energy officially retires St. Clair Power Plant

ST. CLAIR, MI – DTE Energy last Thursday officially announced the retirement of the St. Clair Power Plant and is retraining displaced workers for jobs elsewhere in the company.

Michigan’s largest producer of clean energy has retired the facility, along with the Trenton Channel Power Plant in Trenton, in an effort to bring southeast Michigan closer to a carbon-free future with more affordable and reliable energy.

“Retiring these plants is another step in DTE’s plan to deliver affordable, reliable and clean energy through a modern grid that meets the needs of our customers’ changing lifestyles and our state’s new economy,” DTE Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jerry Norcia said in a news release. “These steps today will lead to a cleaner environment and energy future for Michigan families, communities and businesses.”

For nearly 100 years, the St. Clair and Trenton Channel power plants served southeast Michigan residents. The St. Clair Power Plant began operations in 1953, while the Trenton Channel Power Plant was built in 1924 to address the growth of Michigan’s post-World War I and II economy. Following the end of WWII, the St. Clair plant was commissioned, and at its peak, provided nearly 2,000 MW of electricity to power the growth of Michigan’s businesses and manufacturing sector.

This past summer, DTE began the long-planned retirement of both plants, placing the St. Clair facility on standby-only status to meet periods of high customer demand or extreme temperatures.

With the year drawing to a close, DTE has officially retired both plants, and employees at both locations were offered opportunities to continue to work for the enterprise.

DTE said it is continuing to make progress on its clean energy journey by transitioning from coal to cleaner sources of energy such as renewables and natural gas. On Nov. 3, the company released its CleanVision Integrated Resource Plan, a 20-year proposal to transform how the company generates electricity as part of its clean energy journey.

The Voice

Federal labor regulators and Superior police investigating death of worker at Superior shipyard

SUPERIOR, WI – Federal labor regulators and Superior police are investigating the death of a worker who fell off a ship Monday at Fraser Shipyards in Superior.

The Superior Police Department said police, fire and emergency services responded to a call around noon yesterday for a man who fell about 50 feet from a boat in dry dock at the shipyard.

Police said the deceased is a 64-year-old man from Watertown, Wisconsin. His name is being withheld pending notification of the worker’s family. Authorities say they don’t suspect foul play at this time.

A spokesperson with the U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration confirmed Tuesday the federal workers’ safety agency is also investigating the incident. The agency said the man was employed with Gillett-based sandblasting company C&L Contracting.

“Preliminary information is that an employee was standing on a railing in order to pull a tarp, and he slipped and fell, landing in the dry dock area,” an OSHA spokesperson said in an email.

Officials with Fraser Shipyards were not immediately available for comment on Tuesday.

The man’s death is the second at the shipyard in five years. Welder Joe Burch died in 2017 after being severely burned on the job. Federal labor regulators fined Fraser around $12,000 after discovering the man wasn’t wearing protective gear.

The next year, more than 60 workers reached a $7.5 million settlement with the shipyard for exposure to unsafe lead levels while working on a Great Lakes ship in 2016. A report by Wisconsin and Minnesota health officials released in 2017 showed 171 out of 233 workers tested had blood lead poisoning.

A federal worker’s safety agency fined Fraser $1.4 million for safety violations in 2016. The shipyard later reached a $700,000 settlement without admitting fault or liability after the agency cited them for 14 violations related to lead exposure.

Fraser Shipyards has been operating in Superior for more than 130 years.

Wisconsin Public Radio

Lake Superior gains astounding 6 trillion gallons in same time Lakes Michigan, Huron lose 7 trillion

Lake Superior’s water level has moved dramatically in the opposite direction from the other four Great Lakes.

The Great Lakes are in the normal seasonal decline. As the air turns colder, precipitation amounts are lower. At the same time, the big temperature difference between near the water surface and higher altitudes creates more evaporation. Lake Superior water levels and the rest of the Great Lakes usually decline from November to December.

This year, Lake Superior declined one inch from November to December. The rule of thumb from Keith Kompoltowicz of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is one inch of water on Lake Superior equals 550 billion gallons of water. Lake Superior lost 550 billions gallons of water then in the last 30 days.

Last week I wrote how Lakes Michigan and Huron actually declined quite a bit for November, losing over 3 trillion gallons of water.

When we look at the bigger picture of water level movement on the Great Lakes, most of the Great Lakes had receding water levels in the past year. This is not the case for Lake Superior.

Read more at this MLive link: https://www.mlive.com/weather/2022/12/lake-superior-gains-astounding-6-trillion-gallons-in-same-time-lakes-michigan-huron-lose-7-trillion.html

Related story at this MLive link: https://www.mlive.com/weather/2022/12/lake-michigan-lake-huron-lose-over-3-trillion-gallons-of-water-in-november.html