Waterways

As Davenport continues to recover from the most devastating flooding disaster in recent memory, the combined impact of flooding in cities along the Mississippi River is estimated to be more than $2 billion.

No group knows more about U.S. ports than the Washington, D.C.-based American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA). Perhaps the thorniest problem facing U.S. port authorities is how to pay for both the maintenance of existing infrastructure and the improvements to facilities both on the water and landside in the future. The following questions proffered by the AJOT were answered by the AAPA staff.

The United States has been ranked number 43 in the official list that ranks the quality of shipping, owing to the less-than-optimal performance of U.S. flagged ships in overseas ports. The U.S. ranks right behind Saudi Arabia and just ahead of Libya on the Grey List, which is a ranking of less-than-the-best flag states.

L.A. City Councilman Joe Buscaino vows to fight decision and many believe issue will end up in court

In addition to the well studied threats to coral reefs like warming oceans, storm frequency, and ocean acidification, scientists have described an additional threat to reef survival: Dredging.

A legal battle is brewing between New York and Connecticut over the dumping of dredge spoil material in eastern Long Island Sound.

Critics push for changes in how the Army Corps prevents Mississippi River flooding in New Orleans

CLAY COUNTY – Algae blooms on St. Johns River, widespread from Lake George to Duval County, came earlier this year, experts said.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has announced $292.7 million in discretionary grant funding through the new Port Infrastructure Development Program.

> Water is being diverted from historic Mississippi River flood to protect New Orleans, other areas. > Dolphin and sea turtle deaths are significant, experts say. > Freshwater diversion also affecting tourism, with fishing trips being canceled.

Still years away from being viable freight carriers, autonomous shipping does pose existential threat to current maritime order.

Hundreds of barges remain stalled on the Mississippi River, blocking the main artery of the Farm Belt economy that has been devastated by a spring season full of relentless torrential rains and the melting of record-setting snowfalls. Railroads and highways have been closed as well, limiting the amount of crops sent to market.

Progress continues to be made with smaller vessels and in coastal waters but, as problems with container ships have shown, innovation and technology is not a panacea if the root cause of incidents and losses is not addressed.

Regular maintenance to the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway (AIWW) is required for recreational and commercial boats to make their way up and down the body of water along the coast of Charleston. Without regularly scheduled dredging maintenance, the waterway would fill with sand, silt and sediment preventing boats from passing through at low tide.

"We have decided to install the automated kite system “Seawing” developed by AIRSEAS which was spin off from AIRBUS SE, the major aircraft manufacturer, to a large bulk carrier owned by our company."

Lloyd's Register (LR) has presented Hyundai Heavy Industries Co (HHI) with approval in principle (AiP) for a very large crude carrier (VLCC) ‘eco-tanker’ design, capable of using a combination of volatile organic compounds (VOC) mixed with LNG as fuel and Norsepower’s rotor sail solution for wind-assisted propulsion.

A $205 million Port Miami channel expansion that left a swath of dead coral and led to a legal battle over damage is facing more controversy.

A study commissioned by King Ranch Inc. claims that projects like the one proposed by a Switzerland-based international commodities company off the Padre Island National Seashore are "safe and effective."

DETROIT (WLUC) - The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Detroit District, announces that based on preliminary data, new record high monthly mean water levels were set on Lakes Erie, St. Clair and Superior in the month of May.

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) -Lake Erie is full.So full, it set a record for the month of May for having the highest average water level according to the Army Corp of Engineers out of Detroit.

As the USACE prepares remove 300,000 CY from the port, fisherman are told to keep their gear out of the way.

The record-breaking floods in the Midwest over the past week are revealing an urgent need to account for climate change, says geoscientist Samuel Munoz, an assistant professor of marine and environmental sciences at Northeastern.

Vancouver, British Columbia - Mayor Harvie says there are concerns about how the project could impact killer whales. The port handled a record number of containers last year

Months after the drenching storm pummeled the Carolinas, rivers are still showing effects from Hurricane Florence.

Thousands of Arkansas, Oklahoma and Louisiana residents braced for more flooding on Wednesday, and some evacuated their homes, as forecasts of further rain drove fears that decades-old levees girding the Arkansas River may not hold.

The Morganza spillway will redirect some of the river’s surging waters to protect Louisiana’s big cities and its levee system.

Russia has launched its third new nuclear icebreaker as part of a massive effort to control shipping routes before the ice melts.

A world where artificial intelligence (AI) has advanced to the point where we can compare it to a human and judge it by its actions accordingly is the scene set in the latest instalment of a futuristic port story.

The 14,000 TEU Evergreen Triton arrived Friday at the Helen Delich Bentley Port of Baltimore, setting a new record as the largest container ship to ever visit Maryland. The Neopanamax ship was able to call at Baltimore thanks to the port's recent dredging work.

This blog post compares the uses of liquefied natural gas (LNG) as a marine fuel with other options for complying with the more stringent sulfur emission requirements of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) beginning in 2020 and then discusses the development of LNG as a marine fuel.

A single cruise liner berthed at a passenger terminal emits as much sulphur dioxide as 25,000 diesel buses. As the waters of the Greater Bay Area get ever busier, is enough being done to clean the emissions of ocean-going vessels?

Restore the Mississippi River Coalition is committed to the long-term health of the Louisiana coast and wildlife. Recent freshwater releases by the USACE from the Mississippi River have altered salinities and concern has arisen on the wildlife

BATON ROUGE — Gov. John Bel Edwards and Col. Michael Clancy expect the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to open the Morganza Spillway June 2, flooding 24,000 acres of mostly farmland in the Atchafalaya River Basin and wiping out all the crops there. The corps will make its final decision on May 28.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Jacksonville District held a conference call on April 26 to provide an update on the progress of the Navigation Improvement Study for the Miami Harbor in Florida.

There’s a battle brewing between the Port of Corpus Christi and a Port Aransas environmental group.

During National Safe Boating Week (May 18-24), NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration is taking a closer look at the anatomy of abandoned and derelict vessels. In this first blog, take a peek at some of the hidden hazards of a sunken vessel.

Lighter freight now preferred through Canal; J.B. Hunt enters ocean shipping market.

Florida - For decades, an extensive canal system dug to make way for development and farms in Collier County has altered historical water flows through the region’s two major watersheds and into its estuaries and bays.

OKEECHOBEE, Fla. (AP) — Lake Okeechobee is Florida's "Liquid Heart," and people who depend on it for irrigation, drinking water, recreation and their livelihoods are often in conflict on how to take care of it.

Florida - Everyone agrees: Using reuse water is a great thing. Everyone also agrees: Using it incorrectly can harm natural water bodies, including the Indian River Lagoon.

Florida state Senator Debbie Mayfield weighs in on water resources investment

In Seattle, Singapore, and other waterfront cities around the world, engineers are creating life-enhancing designs to encourage marine biodiversity.

The bulker Solomon Trader has been refloated from the reef where she went aground February 5 on Rennell Island, according to the Solomon Islands' National Disaster Office.

32 cows have taken up residence in the world’s first floating farm in Rotterdam.

While debates rage about how to restore America’s manufacturing, military, and even moral foundations to periods of perceived glory, little attention is being given to the crisis in shipping.

A big rebound in the sea lion population along the West Coast in recent years has created a constant battle to wrangle the protected animals. They’re smart and fun to watch from a safe distance, but also noisy, smelly and proving to be a headache for some coastal marinas.

It wasn’t that long ago when the Greater Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce and other South Florida business interests worked hard to amend the federal Water Resources Development Act to begin a major dredging and widening project at Port Everglades.

Though infrastructure sometimes makes it into the US news, perhaps more now as Donald Trump seeks to make it a signature issue, ports and port planning are generally at the less exciting end of the maritime spectrum, however, the offshore wind sector is whipping up some interest.

Chair of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Peter DeFazio, last week introduced H.R. 440 the Full Utilization of the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund Act, which would unlock billions in already-collected fees to maintain U.S. federal ports and harbors.

A $2.5 billion oil export terminal planned for the Mississippi River in Louisiana is one step closer to construction following a preliminary OK from a stage agency building an adjacent river diversion.

From flooding to commerce to recreation -- the Mississippi River poses all kinds of challenges and opportunities for those who live along its banks.

New London — The state has reached a harbor development agreement and announced the start of a $93 million investment at State Pier, the beginning of what state officials foresee as the transformation of an underutilized port into a hub for the offshore wind industry.

As the agency courts tankers that can carry 2.2 million barrels of crude each, activists worry that the plan could spoil the habitats of the aquatic species that thrive here.

NextDecade Corporation, which plans to build a liquefied natural gas export terminal at the Port of Brownsville, signed a deal Wednesday with the Brownsville Navigation District committing the company to paying for deepening about half of the Brownsville Ship Channel.

A massive letter-writing campaign has started to get the attention of swamped lawmakers in Tallahassee.

Hats off to Southwest Florida Congressman Francis Rooney for pressing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other federal agencies to tell the public what it knows about the threat of toxic blue-green algae.

About 3,000 artifacts have been sifted from tens of thousands of cubic metres of sea-bottom material dredged up from Esquimalt Harbour.

The Greater Lafourche Port Commission (GLPC) took a major step forward in its plans to develop the next generation of Deepwater port facilities at Port Fourchon, thanks to an agreement signed in September by the Edward Wisner Donation Trust granting GLPC a long-term lease of more than 900 acres of property immediately south of the Port, to be known as Fourchon Island.

"One of the largest projects we have worked on" wrapped up 12 months ahead of schedule thanks to a couple of especially powerful suction dredges.

The livelihood of fishermen in Port Royal is under threat by the dredging of the harbour to accommodate cruise ships. Fishermen told THE STAR that the dredging has destroyed their bait grounds.

Anyone up for some ‘Texas Chicken’? Maybe not anymore as pilots request one-way traffic on busiest shipping hub in North America.

After denial in March, the port authority is hoping to change the state’s mind on construction of a wider turning basin.

The Port Commission of the Port of Houston Authority met in special session Monday and moved to accelerate widening of the Houston Ship Channel, the nation’s busiest waterway. “The Houston Ship Channel is open for business for all and will continue to be,” said Chairman Ric Campo.

The Merchant Marine Act of 1920, commonly known as the Jones Act, is the fundamental law of the U.S. maritime industry. The Jones Act is a cabotage law. Cabotage is the trade between two ports within the same country. The Jones Act applies certain restrictions to vessels that can participate in cabotage, or coastwise trade. The principles of the Jones Act date back to the early formation of the United States, with the Tariff Act of 1789, which required all coastwise trade to be conducted on American vessels.

Saint-Petersburg based Admiralteiskie Verfi shipyard (a company of United Shipbuilding Corporation) says it has laid down the North Pole ice-resistant self-propelled platform of Project 00903 today, 10 April 2019, in the framework the ‘Arctic: Territory of Dialogue’ 5th International Arctic Forum.

The Port of Corpus Christi is seeking an opinion from the Texas Attorney General's Office to withhold a copy of a lease for a proposed crude oil terminal on Harbor Island in Port Aransas.

NORFOLK, Va. – Norfolk District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has awarded a five-year services contract to U.S. Facilities Inc. for operations and maintenance of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway’s locks and bridges.

In 1926, community leaders had the foresight to dig a channel from the Gulf of Mexico at Port Aransas all the way to the inner harbor in Corpus Christi. This channel first attracted businesses shipping cotton and grain from local farmers' fields and soon thereafter oil, which came from many of those same fields.

PANAMA CITY (AP) — China's expansion in Latin America of its Belt and Road initiative to build ports and other trade-related facilities is stirring alarm in Washington over Beijing's ambitions in a region that American leaders since the 19th century have seen as off-limits to other powers.

The volume of U.S. ocean cargo imports arranged by Deutsche Post’s DHL Group, United Parcel Service Inc, FedEx Corp and other freight forwarders fell sharply in February, sending a warning on global trade, a key barometer for the world economy.

Officials have finally pulled the plug to allow an unusual flood trapped inside a levee system in Mississippi to drain, but it could be weeks before waters fully recede.

Sarasota County is under fire for the massive amount of treated wastewater that has spilled from its Bee Ridge treatment facility into local waterways. Three nonprofits have told the county they plan to sue if it cannot figure out how to stop the spillage.

It didn't take long for the county to announce they would be working with the Army Corps of Engineers to begin an emergency dredging project of the inlet.

The Port of Corpus Christi Commission approved a 50-year lease agreement today with Lone Star Ports, a joint venture between the Carlyle Group and the Berry Group.

Crude oil exports from Canada’s Port of Vancouver shot up by at least 67 percent last year, sending more tankers through critical habitat for orcas on both sides of the Washington-British Columbia border.

Four key opportunities could spark instability in the Arctic in 2019.

In a couple weeks as we hang up our winter jackets to welcome the warmth of spring, ice that has formed over the Arctic Ocean and Hudson’s Bay will be covering the largest area that it will reach in 2019. This is known as the annual maximum sea ice extent, which occurs at the very end of our winter.

Republican lawmakers who backed the 10-cent-per-gallon gas tax increase know that various irate constituents might be waiting at home to give them an earful on their spring break next week. But the coastal Alabama contingent will be able to point to a very tangible benefit from their supportive votes: A deepening and widening of the Mobile ship channel.

Russia - The Sevmorput, a nuclear-powered LASH carrier / container carrier, has left the Port of Arkhangelsk* for the Gydan peninsula today, 21 March 2019. According to Atomflot, the ship is loaded with general cargo of different types for the Arctic LNG 2 project.

28-day cooling off period now in works after contentious debate about automation; Union reminds officials that ‘robots do not pay taxes.’

A civil case reveals conflict between economic development and environmental concerns.

Terrebonne District Attorney Joe Waitz Jr. has been appointed to aid a state agency’s investigation of possible environmental damage caused by energy companies hin the parish.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) awarded a $92 million construction contract to Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Company, LLC, to deepen and widen the Corpus Christi Ship Channel (CCSC) from the Gulf of Mexico to Harbor Island, as part of the Channel Improvement Project (CIP).

The crew of the late entrepreneur Paul Allen’s research vessel, the R/V Petrel, have discovered the wreck of the American aircraft carrier USS Wasp (CV 7), which went down in 1942 after she was fatally damaged by Japanese torpedoes.

Savannah and other East Coast ports are racing to deepen their harbors to make room for larger cargo ships already arriving through an expanded Panama Canal.

The President’s Fiscal Year 2020 Budget includes $138 million for the 52-foot Charleston Harbor Deepening Project, a milestone that provides an opportunity for the project to receive Congressional funding for construction.

The ship was on a mission to resupply Antarctica’s McMurdo Station. The 150 crew members were reunited with family and loved ones Monday morning.

From underwater drones in Norway to an Australian-designed floating rubbish bin, tech companies and port authorities are increasingly linking up to clean up waterways and tackle air pollution. What are the most pioneering projects and what role can local communities play in creating change?

Big ships come to U.S. even as backhaul cargoes still lacking, and truckers deal with terminal shut-outs and chassis imbalances.

The Coastal Bend Bays and Estuary Program (CBBEP), a nonprofit organization in its 20th year of operation, is dedicated to protecting and restoring the health and productivity of local bays and estuaries. It works with local governments, conservation groups, teachers, students, and the public to raise awareness of natural surroundings.

The Hong Kong-flagged “MV Solomon Trader” ran aground a month ago, spilling oil into the pristine waters of the remote island.

This Winter Marks Fifth Time In 2 Decades Lake Superior Has Nearly Frozen Solid

An environmental disaster is unfolding in the Pacific after a large ship ran aground and began leaking oil next to a UNESCO World Heritage site in the Solomon Islands, Australian officials said Friday [March 1].