Ernest Graves
These things were meeting all the time. The one that was most operational was the one
on Lake Superior. My Canadian counterpart, Bob Clark, and I basically were involved
in the issue of how much water to let out of Lake Superior.
We had the highest levels the lake had ever achieved up to that time. They have since
gone higher. But 1972 had the highest level of water that had ever been recorded. We
had the typical upstream-downstream debate. People on Lake Superior wanted us to
let more water out so that the water levels would not be so high. The people on Lake
Michigan wanted us to hold it back because they didn't want Lake Michigan to be so
high.
The high water was a problem because when the water got high--above the normal
beach shore--it caused huge amounts of damage to the people who had built close to
the water.
Q:
Did you get involved in the Reserve Mining Company controversy over asbestos
tailings?
A:
That was fairly far along by the time I got there. I believe that was already at OCE.
Q:
You had enough to do, I'm sure.
A:
Yes. I remember talking to Fred Clarke about the case. But the district engineer had
already made his recommendation and it had already gone up.
Q:
You were a pretty vocal advocate of year-round navigation.
A:
That was another program that was instigated by U.S. Steel and that came along. When
I say "instigated by U.S. Steel," it was represented as being advocated by all of the lake
carriers, but the truth of the matter is that the dominant carrier on the lakes was U.S.
Steel. The other operators were a small factor. U.S. Steel wanted to be able to move
ore the year-round. This was an economic thing.
When it was natural iron ore, it was impractical, because the water content prevented
handling the ore in the wintertime because of freezing. But when they went to taconite,
which was processed ore--all pelletized--since the pelletizing process dried it out
completely, the material could be handled year-round.
They wanted to move the ore year-round so they could reduce the size of their fleet and
the size of the storage. They wouldn't have to have the huge stockpiles that they
otherwise would have to build up to be able to operate their blast furnaces through the
winter.
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