Seaway, river group agree to disagree

CLAYTON — It was supposed to be a meeting where the heads of the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corp. and local environmentalists settled their disputes.

However, leaders of Save the River, an environmental group based in Clayton, and Seaway officials simply agreed to disagree after a long meeting Monday afternoon at the environmental group's headquarters on Riverside Drive.

For several years, Save the River has been fighting winter navigation through the Seaway and efforts to expand the water route to accommodate larger, oceangoing vessels.

"Expanding the Seaway will never happen. Winter navigation is never going to happen," Seaway Administrator Collister W. Johnson Jr. said before meeting organizers of Save the River.

However, to Jennifer J. Caddick, executive director of the group, Mr. Johnson's word is just not enough to convince her that Seaway expansion is a dead deal.

"The issue isn't up to him. Congress can fund this and Congress can make this happen," she said.

Ever since the House of Representatives passed a climate change bill in June — including a provision that would create a $3.5 billion federal power-marketing agency in the Great Lakes — Save the River has raised concerns the new agency could provide funds to widen and deepen the Seaway.

The Senate version of the bill does not include that provision, and the climate change bill is not expected to pass Congress until next year. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, who added the measure to the House bill, initially sought to have the Seaway Corp. designated as the marketing agency.

Ms. Caddick said the Clayton group will continue to lobby against the expansion until Congress prohibits the use of funds for the expansion of the Seaway.

"We want to see this in writing," she said.

The group also is lobbying for stricter federal measures to keep ships' ballast free of invasive species that threaten the river's ecosystem.

Mr. Johnson said no new species have been introduced to the system by ships since 2006, thanks to the measures that already are in place. Ships are required to flush ballast tanks with salt water outside the Seaway to kill organisms and have the tanks inspected at Montreal.

Mr. Johnson accused the group of "manufacturing" issues.

"I think they really need a new playbook," Mr. Johnson said,

He said the Seaway is facing some tough economic times with the number of transits declining by about 30 percent, from March to October, compared with last year. He predicted that the overall drop in traffic will be about 20 percent by the end of the shipping season, mainly because of the decline in the iron and automobile industries.

Ms. Caddick countered that Seaway officials are the ones who are "keeping their old playbook." She said Mr. Johnson is representing the customers of the Seaway and not the people of the north country.

"We can't depend on them to protect our interests," Ms. Caddick said. "They purely see the Seaway as a highway."