Saginaw Bay Area Contemplates Establishing a Port Authority

By Tim Lundgren, Water Law Attorney

Community leaders in the Saginaw Bay area are contemplating establishing a Port Authority that would manage air, rail, and commercial shipping in the area and serve as a stimulus for local economic development. The only official Port Authority in the state is the Detroit/Wayne County Port Authority. The Port of Detroit is an international deep-water port that operates one of the largest Foreign Trade Zones in the country. It is hoped that the Port Authority structure could facilitate building similar economic development engines elsewhere in the state. A Port Authority could coordinate multiple modes of transportation, improving the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of moving commercial traffic through the region.

Michigan Ports Meeting in Lansing to Promote Waterfront Economies

Solution Proposed for Great Lakes Dredging Crisis

By Tim Lundgren, Water Law Attorney

Recent news reports have spotlighted industry and port authority concerns about a threatened waterway crisis resulting from lack of adequate dredging in the Great Lakes.  A House Bill seeks to address the root problem – H.R. 104, the RAMP Act (for Realizing America’s Maritime Promise).

The problem arises from the ability of Congress to use money from the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund, which was set up to fund operation and maintenance of ports and harbors, for purposes other than harbor maintenance.  The Trust Fund is itself funded by the Harbor Maintenance Tax, a tax paid by shippers using ports based on the value of the goods being shipped through the ports.  The tax and trust fund have themselves been controversial.  Nevertheless, they provide a steady revenue source that can fund the necessary dredging if Congress would make the required appropriations.  The RAMP Act seeks to require just that.

Michigan Ports, Shipping, and Windmills

By Tim Lundgren, Water Law Attorney

I was in Sault Ste. Marie on Thursday and Friday of last week for the Michigan Port Collaborative conference, where much of the discussion focused on how to increase ship traffic in and out of Michigan’s ports, thereby generating local revenue and economic development.  I spoke briefly about the West Michigan Port Operators alliance and about the use of ports for shipping wind turbine parts.  In one of those strange coincidences that sometimes happen, on our way out of town, we saw a ship passing through the locks carrying wind turbine blades.

Windmill blades from Denmark en route to Canada via Soo Locks

The Chronicle Journal from Ontario contains an article describing the shipment of blades and other turbine parts that arrived on Saturday for the Greenwich Wind Farm project in Dorion, and which we saw passing down the St. Mary’s River.  In all, the paper reports, there will be 43 windmill assemblies and their 145-foot blades arriving from Denmark by three ships.  In the article, the port’s harbor master views the wind park as a significant economic benefit for the port and the local economy. These are not the first wind turbine shipments this port has seen, and the harbormaster said that “we’re hoping to expand on that in the future, to get contracts for Saskatchewan and Manitoba.”

It is clear that Michigan needs to move swiftly so as not to miss the economic opportunities presented by the development of wind parks in this region.

Searching for Any Port in an Economic Storm

by Bruce Goodman

As Michigan charts its economic future it needs to make certain it identifies and leverages its natural assets.  In the past it has used its timber resources to foster the furniture industry, the special character of its sands to foster the sand casting foundry industry, and its abundant water to foster water intensive manufacturing.  Now it is time to use its central location and access to the Great Lakes, the Mississippi, and the Atlantic to foster manufacturing of the next generation of large wind energy equipment.  Windturbine components and finished wind energy goods are bulky, and shipping them is expensive.  Rail and over-the-road transportation are increasingly a limiting factor in how big these can be. So transportation in and out of our state by ship and barge would provide an economic and logistical solution.  The port cities of Michigan need to consider how to take advantage of this confluence of shipping advantages and the state’s manufacturing talent to kick start the location of wind turbine industry(s) right here.  As the only state with access to four of the five Great Lakes, we need to make lemonade out of lemons.  Our peninsular geography can turn intermodal transportation (rail, truck, barge) into an asset.  The logic and logistics seem obvious.  Bring in the big cranes!