Legal Petition - Transparency in Seaway Opening Posted Wednesday, February 17, 2010 at 10:35:09 AM     Alexandria Bay, NY 1000 Islands  Comments  Unique Views 1493/Total Views 1498

Save The River Files Legal Rulemaking Petition Calling for Transparency in Seaway Opening Process

In an effort to bring transparency to the process for setting the opening date for the St. Lawrence Seaway, Save The River has filed a legal petition for rulemaking with the U.S. St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation (SLSDC).

The legal petition is a formal request asking the Seaway to institutionalize and make public the procedures for setting the opening date for the St. Lawrence Seaway, taking environmental and safety criteria into consideration. Currently, no clear, publicly available rules exist for this annual process.

The lack of a clear process for opening decisions has allowed the Seaway to lengthen the navigation season considerably, without stakeholder involvement, without congressional approval, and without appropriate environmental studies. Given the range of possible serious impacts to the environment and public, this process should be institutionalized in a rule that protects the environment and makes the process more open and transparent to other stakeholders.

Thirty years ago, the idea of a ten month navigation system on the St. Lawrence River (winter navigation) was rejected by the Great Lakes Region for being too risky environmentally and too costly economically. Today the Seaway has managed to extend the navigation season to almost nine and a half months despite the fact that winter navigation proposals were rejected, and never authorized nor funded.

Early opening of the Seaway has resulted in signficantly increasing the annual use of icebreakers to open the shipping lanes for traffic and, in turn, increasing the environmental and safety risks of early season shipping.

Risks of shipping in ice conditions include:

• Icebreaking and winter shipping can cause significant damage to property and important wildlife habitat;


• Spill response assets, such as boats and boom, are not accessible and usable due to ice conditions making clean-up of any spill near impossible until the ice has melted; and


• Lighted navigation aids are not in place, raising concerns about the safe passage of ships.

Learn more about the legal petition and the risks of winter shipping by visiting our website. 

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