St. Lawrence Seaway: Navigation on Gulf of Saint Lawrence Estuary and the St. Lawrence River

The entire Great Lakes watershed drains through Lake Ontario and flows into the St. Lawrence River near Cape Vincent, New York. The St. Lawrence River then flows northeast through Quebec and Ontario and into the largest estuary in the world, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. The St. Lawrence River, between Ontario, Canada and New York, United States is part of the international boundary. The St. Lawrence Seaway permits ocean-going vessels to go from the Great Lakes of North America to the Atlantic Ocean. Navigation of the St. Lawrence was not possible until canals were built around the Lachine Rapids near Montreal. The canals allowed ships to by-passes the rapids and travel into Lake Ontario. In 1954, the United States agreed to joint development of the international sections of the St. Lawrence River. The St. Lawrence Seaway was opened in 1959 and permits ocean-going ships to go all the way to the southwest corner of Lake Superior near Duluth, Minnesota. During WWII, German U-boats sank several merchant marine ships and three Canadian warships in the lower St. Lawrence River, the Strait of Belle Isle, Cabot Strait and the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. The bottom of the St. Lawrence River is lit-tered with the wreckage of these ships and other ships which were lost during storms. The International Joint Commission recommended that the Canada and United States jointly improve navigation on the St. Lawrence River from Lake Ontario to Montreal. This lead to the signing of the St. Lawrence Treaty. Steel companies supported the treaties since the new St. Lawrence Seaway could get Labrador iron ore to the United States mills in the Great Lakes region. The Seaway’s power dams generate 3.5 million kilowatts of


Introduction
The St. Lawrence River watershed and Newfoundland located in Canada are currently home to millions of people. The development of this area by Europeans has roots that extend back thousands of years, and is intimately connected to the St. Lawrence basin and the eventual development as the St. Lawrence Seaway [1].
The St. Lawrence River flows 3058 km in a northeastern direction from Lake Ontario to the Atlantic Ocean ( Figure 1) [1]. The headwater is the North River in the Mesabi Range at Hibbing, Minnesota [2], and the entire Great Lakes drainage basin discharges into the St. Lawrence River near Cape Vincent, New York.     settled in a pattern of narrow strips fronting the river [1]. Industry began near Trois-Rivieres where bog iron was exploited in 1757. Most of the Quebec population lives on the St. Lawrence River Valley lowlands. The primary objectives of the paper are: 1) to document the geological and landscape properties of the St. Lawrence River basin has contributed to the successful resource and economic development of a historically-rich region of North America and 2) to document the environmental and natural resource risks to the St. Lawrence River basin and the Gulf of Saint Lawrence estuary. These environmental challenges include the settlement of millions of people in the St. Lawrence River basin, navigation of the St. Lawrence River, disposal of treated and untreated wastewater, water pollution, shore erosion as a result of high water levels in the Great Lakes and connecting rivers, invasive species, and flooding.

Geological History of St. Lawrence River Basin
The Laurentide Ice Sheet was massive and covered millions of square kilometers including a large portion of northern United States and much of Canada. The massive sheet occurred many times during Quaternary glacial epochs-from 2.588 ± 0.005 million years ago to the present. The last advance covered most of North America between 95,000 BP and 20,000 years BP [4]. The effects of the glacier included the gouging out of the five Great Lakes and other smaller lakes of the Canadian Shield [2]. These lakes included Lake Champlain, Lake George and the Finger Lakes of New York State.
The ice sheet was up to 3.2 km thick in the center and much thinner at the edges. It caused many changes to the shape, size, and drainage of the Great Lakes basin near the end of the last ice age. Lake Iroquois extended beyond the boundaries of the present day Lake Ontario. Lake Iroquois drained through the Mohawk [5] and Hudson Rivers to the Atlantic Ocean. The ultimate collapse of the Laurentide Ice Sheet is also suspected to have influenced European agriculture through the rise of sea levels. Labrador ice flowed into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence completely covering the Maritime Provinces of Canada.
The details of the lowland's present landscape are the result of the last continental glaciation. Glaciation was followed by marine submergence, emergence and river erosion and deposition. Earlier glacial evidence was often removed by later glacial events. These glacial events were separated by a non-glacial interval during which peat and lake sediments accumulated. The last interval ended 70,000 to 34,000 years ago. Deposits exposed in valleys near Lac Saint-Pierre indicated an early interval of weathering and deposition of river gravels followed by 2 or more glacial events [1].
The last major glacial advance was 18,000 years ago. These ice sheets intermittently uncovering the south and southwestern parts of lowlands. These un- George. Approximately 250,000 people get their drinking water from Lake Champlain. It is connected to the Hudson River by the Champlain Canal, which is part of the New York State Canal system [5]. Parts or all of Lake Champlain freeze each winter.

Newfoundland Soils
The Newfoundland landscape is a mixture of bogs, rock outcrops, barrens, water bodies ( Figure 7) and mineral soils. Much of the interior of the island portion of the province is covered by extensive bogs and barren lands. These sparsely forested heather and mass barrens result from wind exposure, humid conditions, temperature limitations and soil conditions. The soils on the uplands are coarse, usually quite stony, have firm to compact subsoil and are usually very shallow [6].
The natural vegetation, boreal forest which surrounds the barrens is dominantly coniferous species including spruce and broad-leaved deciduous trees such as birch. The deeper and more favorable soils are usually found on elevated ridges, on coastal lowlands and along river terraces. Newfoundland soils are very acid, and low fertility is the dominant soil limitation to crop growth. The soils require lime and fertilizer to supplement elements necessary for plant growth.
Another major limitation is stoniness, which creates management problems and increases the cost of land clearing. Wet soils need to be drained prior to agricultural The Newfoundland Exploratory Soil Survey Program ended in the mid-1990s and was the basis for the Canada Land Inventory Soil Capability Mapping [6].
The exploratory soil survey provided critical data for planning long term agricultural priorities. A detailed soil survey of Newfoundland was needed to provide soil information to guide agriculture use to the most suitable areas, and also for land management planning.

Gulf of Saint Lawrence
The Gulf of Saint Lawrence is the outlet for the North American Great Lakes water ( Figure 2

Strait of Belle Island
The Strait of Belle Isle is a waterway in eastern Canada that separates the Labrador Peninsula and the island of Newfoundland ( Figure 2). The strait is the northern outlet for the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and is considered part of the

Cabot Strait
Cabot Strait is located between Cape Ray, Newfoundland and Cape North, Cape

Laurentian Channel
The

Newfoundland
Newfoundland is a large Canadian island of the east coast of North America

Gander International Airport
Gander, a town of 10,000 people in Newfoundland, played an important role Journal of Water Resource and Protection Gander International Airport (Figure 14) is the first sizable airport on the northeast corner of the North American continent and has long served as a refueling stop for trans-Atlantic flights. The town therefore played host to 6700 airline passengers on 38 planes stranded due to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Buildings in Gander were quickly converted into makeshift shelters including the elementary school and private homes. Food was provided to passengers from almost 100 countries. Gander's hospitality (Figure 15) to the unexpected 9/11 house guests inspired a Broadway musical and has drawn many worldwide accolades.

Lake Champlain
Lake Champlain was named after French explorer Samuel de Champlain, who

Invasive Species
Invasion of the Great Lakes by sea lampreys (Petromyzon marinus) occurred in 1919 after improvements to Welland Canal and overfishing resulted in a decline in native trout [2]. This led to an increase of another invasive species, alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus), and predators were introduced including Salmonids (Salmonidae), brown trout (Salmo trutta), steelhead, (Oncorhynchus mykiss) coho (Oncorhynchus kisutch) and chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) to control alewife [2]. The Great Lakes restoration program was successful and trout and salmon exploded creating a large sport fishery.

History of St. Lawrence Seaway
In 1535, French explorers were the first recorded Europeans to push upstream in the great river to the future site of Montreal. The enormous rapids and falls to the west prevented further inland movement. Later, French fur traders pushed west through the rapids by using canoes and portaging. After 1763, the British took Canada from the French. Later, a series of narrow canals with locks were built to circumvent the falls and rapids. The first canal to open along the future "seaway" to Lake Superior, the Welland Canal, was built to avoid the Niagara Escarpment and Niagara Falls, or where Lake Erie drains through Niagara River into Lake Ontario. In 1833, the Welland Canal opened in Canada and paralleled the Niagara River in New York State [2]. The Welland Canal accommodated ships up to 113 mt pulled by horses that walked on a towpath. One Canadian goal was to take trade away from the Erie Canal built in 1825 [5], but actually supplemented the New York State waterways. Great Lakes shippers often used the Oswego Canal as an alternative route from Lake Ontario to New York City via the Oswego lateral canal, Erie Canal, Mohawk River and Hudson [5]. Although the route involved the added expense of moving cargo from large ocean going ships to smaller canal barges at Oswego, the Oswego River ( Figure 16) and Oswego canal were a more direct route to New York City and the Atlantic Ocean, and also avoided the canal around the Lachine rapids on the St. Lawrence River west of Montreal. So, if Canada hoped to challenge New York City's hold on the western trade, a ship canal around the Lachine rapids near Montreal was a must [7].
By 1848, the difficulties of river current, rocky soil, influence peddling, and labor problems were overcome, and a series of locks and short canals with a water depth of 2.7 m were constructed, and trip time from Lake Erie to Montreal Journal of Water Resource and Protection

Summary and Conclusions
The Ocean. The Lachine rapids near Montreal historically blocked ocean-going ships from the Great Lakes. Canals were dug around the rapids to permit ships to enter the Great Lakes via Lake Ontario (Figure 13). The Welland Canal and locks connected Lake Ontario with Lake Erie. Lake Erie was connected naturally to Lake Huron via the Detroit and St. Clair River, Lake Clair and the Detroit River, while Lake Huron connects via the Straits of Mackinac to Lake Michigan and via the locks on the St. Mary's River to Lake Superior [2]. The navigation and shipping channel between Lake Superior and the Atlantic Ocean is now called the St.
The St. Lawrence Seaway was in direct competition with the New York State Journal of Water Resource and Protection Canal system, which was a barge canal [5] and could not handle Tall Ocean going ships. Eventually, the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Erie Canal were linked by the Oswego River and Canal. Since it was shorter to go from Lake Ontario ( Figure 16) to New York City via the New York State barge canals, Oswego became the home of a major harbor where ocean going ships were unloaded and cargo put on barges to be transported to New York City harbor via the Erie canal, the Mohawk River and the Hudson River. In the 1970s, planned urban development of the St. Lawrence River basin by USACE was blocked by the "Save the River" campaign. Environmental challenges to the St. Lawrence River basin include disposal of treated industrial and urban waste water, water pollution, shore erosion, invasive species and flooding.