{"id":1576,"date":"2010-02-04T12:29:00","date_gmt":"2010-02-04T16:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2010\/02\/04\/was-it-a-mistake-to-build-the-seaway\/"},"modified":"2010-02-04T12:29:00","modified_gmt":"2010-02-04T16:29:00","slug":"was-it-a-mistake-to-build-the-seaway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2010\/02\/04\/was-it-a-mistake-to-build-the-seaway\/","title":{"rendered":"Was it a mistake to build the Seaway?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This weekend, author and journalist Jeff Alexander is the keynote speaker at Save The River’s Winter Weekend at the Clayton Opera House<\/a>. Alexander wrote a pretty comprehensive book about the history of invasive species in the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River called Pandora’s Locks<\/span><\/a>. Invasive species have cost the region billions of dollars. An interview I did with him aired a couple days ago. Listen to it here.<\/a><\/p>\n

I didn’t have broadcast time to include a really interesting part of the interview, where Alexander poses the question above. Was it a mistake to build the Seaway?<\/p>\n

Canada and most Midwestern ports would definitely answer no. So would most people in St. Lawrence County, where the Seaway employs a lot of people to work at the locks and operations center in Massena.<\/p>\n

Alexander says “it was built for all the right reasons and all the best intentions.” No one could have predicted the Seaway was opening a dangerous and unprecedented vector of infection for the Great Lakes eocsystem.<\/p>\n

But the Seaway is a huge underachiever, economically speaking. Foreign freighter traffic is just a sliver of overall shipping traffic on the Great Lakes – most ships are “lakers”, not “salties”.<\/p>\n

So why not close the Seaway “entrance”, make sure new invasive species don’t enter, and just off-load foreign cargo or foreign-bound cargo at the docks in Montreal?<\/p>\n

The National Academy of Sciences tackled this question in 2008<\/a>, determining the Seaway was worth keeping open, but acknowledging that it is “not vital” to the economic health of North America.<\/p>\n

Listen to Jeff Alexander talk about the economic, environmental, and social trade-offs regarding the Seaway. He claims shutting down the Seaway would actually *create* 1,000 jobs in the Great Lakes region, but maybe also busier roads and more pollution:<\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/p>\n

It’s fascinating to think about all the variables in making a decision about the future of the Seaway: greenhouse gases, invasive species, clogged roads, maritime technology, national and regional identity.<\/p>\n

What do you think? Should the Seaway – a waterway that’s intimately intertwined with the history and culture of the North Country – be shut down?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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