"Pandora's Locks" is available at the Michigan State University Press Web site
http://msupress.msu.edu
Grand Haven Tribune
http://www.grandhaventribune.com/paid/302988822474448.bsp
Local author explores effects of seaway
Tue, Jun 9, 2009
BY PETER DAINING
pdaining@grandhaventribune.com
During a year and a half of research for his latest book, Grand Haven journalist Jeff Alexander learned not to underestimate the Great Lakes.
"I knew the Great Lakes were huge, but I didn't know how huge until I started driving around them," he said.
Alexander's recently released book, "Pandora's Locks: the Opening of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway," explores the environmental impact of the $1 billion seaway that opened 50 years ago.
By discharging ballast water into the Great Lakes, ocean vessels brought 57 invasive species into the Great Lakes, which have caused more damage than the $3 billion Exxon Valdez oil spill, Alexander said.
Alexander covered Great Lakes issues for several Michigan newspapers in the last 20 years. His first book, "The Muskegon: The Majesty and Tragedy of Michigan's Rarest River," was published in 2006.
Alexander recently took a job with the National Wildlife Federation.
Through "Pandora's Locks," Alexander hopes to show how the seaway affects people living near the Great Lakes and across the United States.
Higher water costs because of invasive species clogging water lines, closed beaches because of algae blooms and smaller salmon because of fierce competition for food sources — these were all caused by the seaway, Alexander said.
"When you catch a goby down at the pier, it's because of the seaway," he said. "Or you see zebra mussels on the beach, it's because of the seaway."
Dan Tebo, a charter boat captain in Grand Haven, has been fishing Lake Michigan waters for 30 years. In that time, he's seen the effects of invasive species firsthand.
"It's something we definitely need to get a handle on," he said. "We're not good stewards of our natural resources, that's for sure."
When the seaway opened in 1959, it was plugged as an economic benefit to the region. Muskegon even named Seaway Drive after it.
Even before the devastating consequences of invasive species were understood, Congress amended what is now the Clean Water Act to not allow ballast discharges. But a year later, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency made an exemption, and sea water — along with sea creatures — once again came pouring out of boats into the Great Lakes.
"That's where the regulation should have happened," Alexander said. "The EPA should have never given that exemption."
The other big player, of course, was the shipping industry. But Alexander said it's not practical to expect businesses to regulate themselves.
"Businesses will do what they can get away with — that's why we have regulatory agencies," he said.
Even after the science clearly showed invasive species were creating a slew of problems in the Great Lakes, the U.S. government didn't act.
"It's really clear that the U.S. EPA and Coast Guard and Canadian authorities just didn't do their jobs," Alexander said. "They had the legal authority and science, and they just didn't do it."
The decision to allow unregulated ballast water into the Great Lakes was made by the heads of these organizations, not by Coast Guardsmen in places like Grand Haven, he noted.
The mistake wasn't corrected until 2005, when a federal court ruled the EPA's exemption was illegal. The court ruled ocean barges must have ballast water regulations.
Now, Alexander said it's time citizens take up the cause of the Great Lakes so further damage doesn't come to these waterways. The EPA reports 30 new invasive species could come to the Great Lakes in coming years, he said.
The book recommends ocean vessels should have ballast water treatment systems and states should have their own laws to protect the waters.
"We have 57 species, but it would be great if we could not have 58 ... or 100," he said.
"Pandora's Locks" is available at the Michigan State University Press Web site
http://msupress.msu.edu. Alexander is speaking about his book at 7 p.m. July 16 at Loutit District Library.
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Distributed without profit to ESA Great Lakes District members who have expressed an interest in receiving aquatic invasive species information for research and educational purposes.
