High Water Levels Help Shipping Industry After Rough Spring

High Water Levels Help Shipping Industry After Rough Spring
Xavier Hershovitz, Matthew Myers July 8, 2019 https://www.9and10news.com/2019/07/08/high-water-levels-help-shipping-in...

High water levels have created problems for businesses, cities and homeowners, but more water actually helps the shipping industry.

Thousands of freighters pass through the Soo Locks every year, and record high water levels don’t change much there.

“Overall, there’s not really a big impact to our operations,” said Kevin Sprague, area engineer for the Army Corp of Engineers at the Soo Locks. “It doesn’t really impact the number of trips but it does it can impact the tonnage because they can carry more per trip.”

Higher water levels mean freighters can carry more.

The Lake Carriers’ Association works with freight and shipping companies in the Great Lakes.

“For each inch of water we can load up to 270 tons of additional cargo, the downside of high water is there’s flooding problems and sometimes when a ship goes by our wake or the water we displace can cause problems for homeowners,” said Jim Weakley, President of Lake Carrier’s Association.

The Army Corp of Engineers monitor lake levels so organizations like the Lake Carriers’ Association know exactly how heavy freighters can be to travel through small channels like the Soo Locks in Sault Ste. Marie.

Freighters do need to slow down in smaller channels to reduce the impact their wakes might have on those along the shoreline. These water levels really are helping the shipping industry which took a hit this spring.

“Sadly we’re still recovering from the lack of ice breaking that we saw with the Coast Guard over the winter so we got off to a very slow start in March and April,” Weakley said. “So the higher water levels have allowed us to catch up just a little bit quicker than we would have without those water levels.”

One of the positives of all this water.

“Right now we’re kind of enjoying the higher water levels we’re able to move more cargo on each trip and we’re able to catch up,” Weakley said.