Oct 7, 2008 9:50 am US/Central
Maritime Groups: Icebreakers Needed On Great Lakes
MILWAUKEE, Wis. (AP) ―
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In Wisconsin, there's only one Coast Guard icebreaker to help vessels on the lake. (File)
AP
A shortage of U.S. Coast Guard icebreakers could disrupt shipping on the Great Lakes this winter, according to maritime officials and shipping industry leaders.
Lake Michigan covers 22,300 square miles, with more than 1,640 miles of shore in Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana.
But in Wisconsin, there's only one Coast Guard icebreaker.
"We definitely had some issues last year," said Dean Haen, Port of Green Bay director and president of the Wisconsin Commercial Ports Association. "Just looking at it from Green Bay's perspective, there have been times when we haven't had our icebreaker available to us because of mechanical problems or it was reassigned."
Millions of tons of cargo move on Lake Michigan each year. About 15 percent of deliveries are made during the "ice season" between Dec. 15 and April 15.
Jim Weakley, president of the Cleveland-based Lake Carriers Association, recently testified about the problem before the U.S. House of Representatives. Ice problems have been widespread from Wisconsin to Ohio, he said.
Last winter, three shipping companies alone reported more than $1 million in ice damage to their vessels. On March 28, two ships collided in the Straits of Mackinac after one became stuck in ice.
"Due to a lack of capacity, capability and reliability by both the U.S. and Canadian Coast Guards, much of the Great Lakes and connecting channels remained abandoned to the elements," Weakley testified. "Lives were unnecessarily risked when the U.S. Coast Guard failed, because of inadequate resources, to answer the call."
Many of the icebreakers are more than 40 years old and prone to oil leaks and engineering failures. Replacement parts are no longer made.
"We have had to literally fabricate parts and pieces by welding and getting scrap metal, and just putting them together," said Coast Guard Petty Officer William Mitchell, stationed in Cleveland.
The Coast Guard spent more than $80 million to replace its largest icebreaker, the Mackinaw, with a new ship with the same name in 2005.
Weakley and others say two more icebreakers are needed -- a 225-foot ship on Lake Michigan that can do double duty as an icebreaker and buoy tender and a 140-foot icebreaker assigned to Duluth, Minn., for service on Lake Superior.
"It would have a tremendous impact on the Great Lakes shipping industry's ability to meet the needs of commerce," Weakley said.
But the Coast Guard has not asked for the ships. It was never intended as a tow-truck service for stuck ships, Mitchell said.
"We just clear the shipping channels enough to allow a minimized amount of goods to move through the Great Lakes in the winter," he said. "It's not supposed to be equal to summertime shipping."
Weakley and others, however, said a slowdown in shipping hurts everyone.
"With each cargo, we deliver iron ore for steel production, limestone and cement for construction, coal for power generation ... and jobs," Weakley said. "Without adequate U.S. Coast Guard resources, particularly icebreaking capacity, the gears of this economic engine could come to a grinding halt."
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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