Re: Seaway Question

From: Patrick R.M.Toomey
Location: KJIngston, Ontario
email:
Remote Name: 65.94.242.65
Date: 10.30.05
Time: 11:55:51 AM

Comments

For Dick Lund. The salt water meets the fresh water outflow from the St. Lawrence at about Ile aux Coudres, about 60 miles east of Quebec City, by the time the channel passes Point au Pic on the north shore a little bit further east it is quite salt with a lot of fresh water mixed in. At Quebec City itself the tide flows both ways, but the water passing beneath the bridges is still fresh even though it is forced upstream by the incoming salt water tide from downstream. It would be impossible for salt water to reach Lake Ontario if only for the fact that the Seaway locks start at Montreal, which itself is several feet above sea-level, several locks raising water levels rapidly to the level of Lac St. Louis. The tidal range ceases at the rapids thirty miles upstream from Quebec, though tidal surges are sometimes felt at Trois Rivieres, the current never reverses itself above the rapids. Captain Patrick R.M.Toomey, Canadian Coast Guard (retired).