St. Lawrence Seaway authorities, Indian tribe resolve dispute

St. Lawrence Seaway authorities, Indian tribe resolve dispute    U.S. and Canadian authorities that oversee the management of the St. Lawrence Seaway navigation system have entered an agreement with the Akwesasne Mohawks to establish clearer procedures for determining the seaway’s opening dates to commercial navigation.
   The agreement requires procedures to set the opening date of the seaway by providing the Akwesasne Mohawks with the information used by the seaway related to weather and ice conditions.
   Other requirements include:
   * Creating a process for meeting with the Akwesasne Mohawks and discussing these procedures before picking the opening date.
   * Committing the parties to undertake a jointly funded three-year joint observational study on the effects of ice-breaking on tribal land.
   * Requiring the Akwesasne Mohawks to withdraw pending lawsuits with the seaway agencies.
   The U.S. Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corp. and Canada’s St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp. jointly determine the opening and closing dates for the binational waterway that links North America’s industrial and agricultural heartland to overseas markets.
   The Akwesasne Mohawks filed suit in March 2004 against the U.S. seaway agency and the Transportation Department in Federal District Court in the Northern District of New York. The complaint alleged that the U.S. seaway agency’s decision to open the seaway on March 25, 2004, and its decision to use ice-breaking vessels to prepare the navigation channel violated sections of the National Environmental Policy Act, the 1996 National Historic Preservation Act, and the Administrative Procedure Act.