Posted on June 4, 2018
By Kathleen Gray, Detroit Free Press
The State of Michigan will set aside $50 million in its 2019 budget to cover its potential share of a $1-billion project to build a new supersize shipping lock at Sault Ste. Marie, Gov. Rick Snyder and legislative leaders said Wednesday.
Snyder said he is calling on other states to also pitch in money, since a failure of the existing 1,000-foot lock at Sault Ste. Marie would severely impact the economy of the entire country.
There are four Soo Locks at Sault Ste. Marie, but only one of them is big enough for cargo ships carrying iron ore crucial to U.S. steel production.
“If something were to happen to that lock, it would be economically devastating,” Snyder said at a news conference at the Detroit Regional Chamber’s Mackinac Policy Conference.
“It’s time to build a lock” and “Michigan is stepping up now to say we’re going to put our money where our mouth is.”
Snyder was joined at the news conference by Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof, R-West Olive, and House Speaker Tom Leonard, R-DeWitt. Both pledged to set aside the money from a few hundred million dollars in surplus funds the state expects to have from the 2017 and 2018 budget years. The state already has said it plans to spend more than $300 million of the surplus funds on road repairs.
Snyder and the lawmakers said retooling the Soo Locks has been a Michigan priority for years, but they are heartened by the federal government recently identifying the project as a priority.
President Donald Trump, at an April 28 campaign rally in Macomb County, said he wants the federal government to fix the badly deteriorating locks, which connect Lake Superior and Lake Huron in Sault Ste. Marie. Trump said he planned to call the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers about the project, either that night or the next day.
“Your lock, it’s not looking too well,” Trump told the crowd, pledging, “We’re going to start (on an upgrade) as soon as I get back” to Washington, D.C.
“After spending all that money in the Mideast, can you imagine — we can’t fix a lock?” Trump said.
But Trump gave no details about the scope of the promised project or where the funding would come from.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers did not respond to email and phone messages Wednesday.
Snyder said there has been follow-up between federal and state officials since Trump made his announcement and he understands Washington wants non-federal sources to contribute 20% of the estimated $900-million to $1-billion cost, or close to $200 million.
“We’re not putting up the whole $200 million,” Snyder said. “We hope we don’t need the whole $50 (million).”
Both he and Meekhof said some of the $50 million the Legislature will earmark could end up being used to address problems related to Enbridge Line 5 through the Straits of Mackinac and/or the Asian carp problem threatening the Great Lakes.
Lt. Gov. Brian Calley, whom Snyder named as a point person on the Soo Locks issue, said a failure at the Soo Locks would cost the U.S. economy 11 million jobs in the first six months the lock was closed. It would take 3,000 trucks hauling ore to do the job of one freighter, he said.
Snyder said he’s starting by asking other Great Lakes states to pitch in, but a Soo Locks closure would cause massive job losses as far away as Texas and “you could argue every state should contribute something, just about.”
Business leaders also spoke about the need for a new lock.
Hannah Naltner, senior corporate counsel for Michigan-based furniture maker Steelcase, said the Soo Locks are “a critical hub for our global business.”
Earlier Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Lansing, said she’s not convinced Trump followed up with his pledge to contact the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers about the locks.
However, “I’m hopeful,” she said.
“We’ve been calling on a regular basis and we asked them to let us know and to my best knowledge that has not happened,” Stabenow said. “I’m going to let his actions speak for themselves. He indicated he was going to call the Army Corps and I said that’s great and he’s not yet done it.”
The White House, however, told the Free Press weeks ago — after Trump’s remarks in Michigan — that a senior administration official had talked to the Army Corps about the Soo Locks, though the exact nature of the discussion was not disclosed.
The White House said state officials in Michigan and surrounding states were contacted as well and said the discussions were “positive and well-rounded.”
Stabenow said she looks forward to appropriating the federal money needed for the project.
“It will be the largest construction project since this was last built,” she said in reference to the original locks at Sault Ste. Marie. “And it’s absolutely critical if we’re going to make sure the economy continues to grow.”
Source: Detroit Free Press
