American Army ingeniors are in charge of this 20 billion US dollars project since 2002.
The environmental Ministries of Quebec, Ontario, Canada and the United States have not even been consulted…

I have just listened to an interview (cf. Reference at the end of the page) on the dredging of the St. Lawrence.
I am a citizen living by the banks of the river in Montreal (Verdun) since 1980.
I am appaled by this project, its tremendous impact (disappearance of the river), by the silence around the project and by the alternatives that exist but are simply not considered.
Growing up by the river, I have seen the river change over the years (pollution, dropping of fish populations, crayfish local extinction and general degeneration of life on the banks) but the river is still here and helps me keep my head up in times of hardships (personal and international).

I urge you to look into this project, break the silence and mobilize. For more info, contact Louis-Gilles Francoeur, he is a journalist at Le Devoir.

American Army ingeniors are in charge of this 20 billion US dollars project since 2002.
The environmental Ministries of Quebec, Ontario, Canada and the United States have not even been consulted…

The St. Lawrence Seaway was established in 1960.
The official version of this dredging project: optimize the locks.
The project, reviewed, deals in fact with the future needs of the panamax, these 300 meter-long (1000 feet) boats.

The dredging project proposes the enlargement of the locks but also a recalibration of the river.
The channel is now 200 meters large and 11 meters deep and enables boats to navigate without touching the bottom.
It would have to be enlarged even more.

Medium-term, climate change will already lower the river level.
The ecological impacts are more than important. Except for the channel, the river, now 3 meters deep would suffer a 2 meter drop (climate change and recalibration)…
The St. Lawrence River and its ecosystem would thus disapear, leaving a narrow commercial panamax water-highway…
The costs are tremendous, ecological, social but also economic. And viable alternatives exist, such as intermodal transport.

Reference :
If you understand french, I urge you to listen to Louis-Gilles Francoeur’s radio-report (aired March 17, on Radio-Canada,
on the Indicatif Present show and archived at this address : http://radio-canada.ca/radio/indicatifpresent/
(then click on ‘environnement’ and find the ‘Dragage du Saint-Laurent’ audio clip).

Natacha Perriard
Verdun, Qc.