If you really want to know where criticism for the St. Lawrence Seaway started, you have to go back to 1976, when a barge carrying more than 300,000 gallons of crude oil, ran aground off of Wellesley Island.

The thick, gooey oil riddled its way up and down the Thousand Islands from Alexandria Bay to Massena.

To this day, the accident remains one of the largest inland oil spills in America.

"We feel that the St. Lawrence Seaway has been tremendously damaging to the environment of the St. Lawrence River and The Great Lakes," said Jennifer Caddick, Executive Director of Save the River.

In the last 30 years, Save the River has blamed the Seaway's two agencies, Canadian and American, for damaging the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes.

Their main complaint lies with the ships that pass through the waterway every day.

The last time a ship ran aground was in 2004, when the McKeil Marine slammed into Heart Island in Alexandria Bay.

Luckily it was only carrying salt and no major damage was done.

Still, it's something to reflect on.

Last week, that same ship that crashed into Heart Island chugged its way up the St. Lawrence, past Clayton.

It received a fresh coat of paint since we last saw it 5 years ago.

Mary Prichard, a life-long resident of Grindstone Island, brought us on her boat so we could get a close up look at it.

Over the last 50 years, she says the seaway has caused nothing but problems for the folks who live along the River.

"So a lot of people have given up a lot along this border, Canadian and American. They've given up a lot. To see this thing go through, that benefits other people - people around the world, and that's wonderful, but the people from this area get no benefit from it," Prichard said.

The only thing Mary gets, she says, is an eye-sore and an evolving river.

In the last 50 years, the large-ships have brought in invasive species from the ocean.

Zebra mussels and round gobies are the most prevalent.

Scientists say they've altered the eco-system of the St. Lawrence River and Great Lakes in a good way and a bad way.

"People will argue back and forth anytime you have a development that's occurred with the seaway along the seaway...development of locks and dams...was it good...or bad at the time? Is it good or bad today?" said David White, Tourism Specialist NY Sea Grant.

At a conference in Cornwall, Ontario last week, Jennifer Caddick told representatives from the Seaway Agencies how the species have damaged the eco-system in the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence.

"So our eco-system here is just being hammered by this influx of species after species after species and the natural creatures that are here haven't been able to adapt and evolve to accommodate those new incoming species," Caddick said.

If you ask volunteers at Save the River, they'll say things are getting better, but not fast enough.

They want the seaway agencies to develop blueprints outlining the last 50 years, with a close up look at how the seaway has altered the environment.

On top of that, they want to know how the agencies plan to make things safer down the road.

See Part 1

See Part 2

Also, we're having a conversation about the seaway with a blog called, strangely enough, "The Seaway Blog."

Find it here.

And if you want to add your own post or picture or video, send it to us by email at theseawayblog@gmail.com.