According to Eric Sharp, Staff Writer for Detroit Free Press, the St. Lawrence Seaway, linking Michigan waters to the Atlantic Ocean, has never lived up to its promise of being an economic catalyst for the Great Lakes region and probably never will. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has ruled out an expansion of the Seaway. Without a substantial shift to a European-style system called short sea shipping, the seaway's potential will always be limited. Critics also point out that the waterway has brought expensive troubles, such as destructive sea creatures and plants dumped into the Great Lakes from the ballast of oceangoing ships. By its legal definition, the 52-year-old St. Lawrence Seaway includes only seven locks in the upper St. Lawrence River between Montreal and the eastern end of Lake Ontario and eight locks on the 27-mile Welland Canal between the western end of Lake Ontario and the eastern end of Lake Erie.
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