Correcting fuzzy geography with a description of how the heartland's grain gets from Point A to B

Just as we out in farm country can have a fuzzy notion of where our northern-
produced grain goes and how it's used
(which we addressed in a profile of the American grain system in the last column, archived online at www.duluthport.com), we also have only a peripheral awareness of the Port of Duluth-Superior's navigation system as well.

For one thing, I think we have a tendency to view grain traffic as going from Point A (Duluth-Superior) to Point B (export markets via the north Atlantic Ocean) and skipping what's in between. That's an incomplete picture of this waterway, as bad as thinking of the U.S. in terms of it being only New York on the East Coast and L.A. on the West Coast (which we in the Midwest are used to, but still bristle about, thank you very much).

Thus, let's take a closer look at the logistics of the 2,300-mile Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway system, which allows uninterrupted navigation nine or 10 months of the year from the Atlantic Ocean to the head of the Lakes.

Maritime commerce on the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway System annually generates more than 200 million tons of cargo, more than 150,000 U.S. jobs, $4.3 billion in personal income, $3.4 billion in transportation-related business revenue and $1.3 billion in federal, state and local taxes. The Seaway is equally significant for Canada, serving as the gateway to a region producing two-thirds of that nation's industrial output and generating tens of thousands of jobs.

With more than 15 other major ports, the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway is the key link that connects waterway cargo from Duluth-Superior to domestic and overseas markets. More than 40 provincial and interstate highways and nearly 30 railroad companies connect Seaway ports with cities in the U.S. and Canada.

The waterway's shoreline serves as gateways to eight U.S. states (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin) and two Canadian provinces (Quebec and Ontario). Twenty-five U.S. cities of more than 100,000 residents are within 100 miles of a Great Lakes port.

Connecting the Great Lakes to the Atlantic, and providing navigable waters for deep-draft ocean vessels, is the St. Lawrence River and Seaway. Approximately 800 miles long, the St. Lawrence River can be divided into three broad sections: the freshwater river, which extends from Lake Ontario to just outside the city of Quebec; the St. Lawrence estuary, which extends from Quebec to Anticosti Island (located northeast of Maine); and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, which leads into the Atlantic Ocean.

The St. Lawrence River drops 226 feet between Lake Ontario and Montreal, Canada. To allow vessels to pass through the river and in and out of the Great Lakes, the St. Lawrence Seaway, an American-Canadian project, was begun in 1954 and completed in 1959. The Seaway created the final link in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River system, connecting Duluth with the head of the Gulf of St. Lawrence through a complex system of lakes, rivers, deepened channels, locks and canals.

The system is connected by six short canals with a total length of less than 60 nautical miles. Nineteen locks make up the world's most spectacular lift system to raise (or lower) and carry vessels through the system. In each lock, ships twice as long and half as wide as a football field are routinely raised about as high as a 60-story building and then continue on their waterway voyage. Each lock is 766 feet long and 80 feet wide. A lock fills with approximately 24 million gallons of water in just seven to 10 minutes. Getting through a lock takes about 45 minutes.

Last year's traffic totaled more than 41 million metric tons through both sections of the Seaway, and there were 3,865 ship transits in the navigation season, which typically runs from early April through the end of December. Almost 50 percent of Seaway traffic travels to and from overseas ports, especially in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Agricultural products represent about 40 percent of all Seaway trade. Grain shipped both by the U.S. and Canada is primarily for export. Cargoes include wheat, corn, soybeans, barley, oats and flax.

Mine products (including iron ore, coal, coke, salt and stone) make up more than 40 percent of total Seaway trade each year. There is strong demand by European utilities for low-sulfur coal from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana shipped via the St. Lawrence Seaway.

Iron and steel products are the highest value of goods shipped on the Seaway, and their handling is the most labor-intensive. Other processed cargoes on the system include fuel oil, petroleum products, chemicals, forest products and animal products.

You can find a wealth of information about the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway online at http://www.greatlakes-seaway.com, where I obtained much of the information for this column.

Ag writer Tracy Sayler, headquartered in Fargo, N.D., can be found at tsayler@prairieagcomm.com.