The St Lawrence Seaway - Oil Spill Some 30 Years Ago - Prelude to the Gulf Tragedy

[Bobbieo]

When I was growing up in a town called Waddington in northen New York state I said my St. Lawrence was the most beautiful river in the whole wide world. It was then! That is where I spent my summers - swimming, boating and fishing and my winters, ice skating on the frozen River.

The water was so pure and clean I could see the bottom when I fished from my skift and could pick out the perch I wanted to catch. No more - The Seaway was built.

The Seaway: Then & Now, Part 3 Of A 7 News Special Report
Originally printed at http://www.wwnytv.com/news/local/45005647.html

If you really want to know where criticism for the St. Lawrence Seaway started, you have to go back to 1976, when a barge carrying more than 300,000 gallons of crude oil, ran aground off of Wellesley Island.

The thick, gooey oil riddled its way up and down the Thousand Islands from Alexandria Bay to Massena.

To this day, the accident remains one of the largest inland oil spills in America.

"We feel that the St. Lawrence Seaway has been tremendously damaging to the environment of the St. Lawrence River and The Great Lakes," said Jennifer Caddick, Executive Director of Save the River.

In the last 30 years, Save the River has blamed the Seaway's two agencies, Canadian and American, for damaging the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes.

Their main complaint lies with the ships that pass through the waterway every day.

The last time a ship ran aground was in 2004, when the McKeil Marine slammed into Heart Island in Alexandria Bay.

Luckily it was only carrying salt and no major damage was done.

Still, it's something to reflect on.

Last week, that same ship that crashed into Heart Island chugged its way up the St. Lawrence,