Seaway official dispels 'myths'
WASHINGTON — Expansion of the St. Lawrence Seaway is never going to happen, but neither will the ban that some environmentalists seek for ocean-faring ships on the waterway, the system's U.S. administrator said.
St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corp. Administrator Collister Johnson sought an interview this week to dispel what he called "urban myths" perpetuated in the special election for the 23rd Congressional District, including Seaway expansion, winter navigation and the Seaway's approach to invasive species released by ocean vessels.
He dismissed as "absolutely absurd" the assertion that a proposal in Congress to create a power marketing agency on the Great Lakes — most likely the Seaway Corp. — could provide funds to expand locks and channels for bigger ships. And he described himself as "frosted" at Save the River, the Clayton environmental group, for suggesting as much in a recent newsletter to members.
The proposal, passed by the House this summer, is "not a devious federal plot to widen or deepen the Seaway. It's never going to happen," Mr. Johnson said.
Mr. Johnson's interview with the Watertown Daily Times was his first such sit-down session in several months, and his office arranged it as he prepares for a swing through Northern New York next week. He plans to meet with local officials, including at the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation, possibly with representatives of Save the River, and with the editorial board of the Times, which he blamed in part for stirring up fears about system expansion and winter navigation.
During the congressional race, the Times posed questions about those issues to the candidates through an editorial that made national headlines after Conservative candidate Douglas L. Hoffman was unable to answer.
The questions related to a measure added to a House climate change bill at the behest of Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, which would create a $3.5 billion power marketing agency in the one large region of the country without one — the Great Lakes. The agency would loan money for alternative energy projects, and the revenue it gains back could be used to improve and maintain the Seaway, she has said.
The congresswoman initially sought to have the Seaway Corp. designated as that agency in the bill but leaders on the House Appropriations Committee instead called on the Obama administration to make a recommendation.
Ms. Kaptur worked with Seaway officials on the proposal, Mr. Johnson has said, and has made clear to them that she is not looking to expand the system, which Save the River and other groups say could cause great environmental damage along the St. Lawrence.
She also told the Times in August that expansion is not her goal, although she was unfamiliar with Northern New York concerns about the possible impact.
Leaders at Save the River had become suspicious a few weeks earlier when Ms. Kaptur, on her congressional Web site, posted a speech she had given at the 50th anniversary celebration of the Seaway's opening in Massena and included a link to an editorial in the Toledo Blade titled "Expand the Seaway."
Mr. Johnson, in the interview, said Ms. Kaptur's proposal would support energy and commerce and create jobs in the Great Lakes region.
"She's trying to help the Great Lakes," he said.
The provision is not in the Senate version of the bill, which has passed in committee.
Mr. Johnson also sought to tamp down speculation that the Seaway Corp. supports winter shipping through the system, another practice that Save the River and other groups say would cause environmental damage and possibly interfere with hydroelectric production at the St. Lawrence-FDR Power Project because of disruption of the ice cover.
"Winter navigation will never happen," Mr. Johnson said.
Mr. Johnson also defended the Seaway's record on management of invasive species and said measures already in place — dumping of ballast water outside the system, saltwater flushing of ballast tanks to kill organisms, and inspections of ballast tanks at Montreal — are working well.
Since 2006, he said, no new species have been introduced to the system by ships, the longest such period since the 1960s.
He said the Seaway Corp. supports additional controls sought by the U.S. Coast Guard, ballast treatment systems on ships and saltwater flushing.
"That is effective and realistic and keeps stuff out," Mr. Johnson said.
On the other hand, the National Academies of Science has questioned whether exchanging ballast and flushing ballast tanks with salt water is enough to kill all potential aquatic invaders. While the method is highly effective at reducing their numbers, the National Academies reported last year, most ships were not designed for that purpose and tanks may have "dead zones" that are not fully washed out.
In some respects, Mr. Johnnson and others in Great Lakes shipping are fighting for the survival of global trade on the system. In recent years, some environmental groups and editorial writers have called for closing the Seaway to ocean vessels to keep out invasive species, although some enter through other means.
But the United States cannot do so on its own, Mr. Johnson said, citing the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909 that ensures that "the navigation of all navigable boundary waters shall forever continue free and open," although the Seaway was not open to ocean freighters until 1959.
"People who advocate that don't realize it's like declaring war on Canada," Mr. Johnson said.
