Detroit — U.S. and Canadian officials are considering whether to spend tens of billions of dollars to open the Great Lakes to oceangoing ships and the international commerce they could bring.
About 100 million people live in the Great Lakes basin.
Backers say the expense would be worthwhile because of the economic growth that would be generated by expanding the 44-year-old, 3,700-kilometre Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway system.
Some opponents say deepening and widening the system would threaten the Great Lakes environment, already harmed by zebra mussels and other transplanted pests.
About 100 million people live in the Great Lakes basin.
To open the system to the largest ships now in use, authorities would have to spend billions of dollars to rebuild locks and deepen shipping channels at many points along the route.
U.S. and Canadian transportation officials agreed this month to a multiyear effort to calculate the costs of both basic repair and large-scale expansion of the shipping system.
Great Lakes ports never handled much beyond core cargoes of grain, rock and ore, in part, because large, oceangoing ships outgrew the St. Lawrence Seaway almost as soon as it opened.
Shipping advocates say the study is a golden opportunity, and probably the last, to build a thriving, international transport business envisioned when the St. Lawrence Seaway opened.
"To do nothing is to sound the death knell before long," Steven Olinek, deputy director of the Detroit/Wayne County Port Authority, told The Detroit News for a story Tuesday. "We're in danger of becoming the next Erie Canal unless we find ways to become more competitive."
The shipping industry's wish-list of improvements could cost $10-billion (U.S.) to $20-billion, according to preliminary estimates.
Environmentalists say it would be a waste of tax dollars to spend even the roughly $20-million it may take to fully study the expansion questions.
"The problems are so immense that you don't even ask the question," said Tim Eder, director of the National Wildlife Federations Great Lakes Natural Resource Center in Ann Arbor.
"You don't alter nature in such a radical way and threaten the most important fresh water body on the planet," Mr. Eder said.
The Port of Detroit ranks 39th in the country, shipping far less cargo than deep-water ports on America's coasts.
"Can you imagine the highway system if wed had no new on-off ramps in the past 40 years?" Mr. Olinek asked.
Still, Great Lakes ports move 200 million tonnes of cargo a year, providing about 67,000 jobs and generating about $5-billion in annual income, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
"The St. Lawrence Seaway is a vital economic artery to the ports of Americas heartland," U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta said earlier this month.
Over the next two years, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will study what it could cost for basic maintenance just to continue operating existing locks that are up to 70 years old. Further study would put firm price estimates on large-scale improvements.
