Healing Our Waters Coalition » Asian Carp Barrier Act

Mayor Daley Shows Support For Rep. Dave Camp’s Bill

tpache — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 20:43:48 +0000

The Permanent Prevention of Asian Carp Act received support from a welcome and some might say, unlikely, person this week –Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, who has weighed in on the latest and most important discussion in the Asian Carp crisis. Mayor Daley has written a letter to Congress expressing his support to accelerate a study that examines how to permanently separate the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basins.

When Chicago reversed the flow of the Chicago River and connected the two basins, it created a pathway by which invasive species could infest U.S. waters. The Asian Carp is poised to join a list of invaders—alongside the zebra mussel and round goby—that has used the artificial connection to spread environmental and economic harm.

“The time is right for a comprehensive study to define a vision for the future of the Chicago area Waterway System which is exactly what this Bill calls for. I encourage you to pass it as quickly as is feasible,” Daley wrote to Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chair James Oberstar.

Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.) and Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) introduced the PPACA in the House and Senate respectively after a sexually mature Asian carp was found beyond the electronic fence intended to repel them and just miles from Lake Michigan. The legislation would force the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to complete a study in 18 months to determine how to separate the Mississippi River and Great Lakes watersheds. The bill also asks the U.S. Army Corps to identify shipping options that would not compromise hydrological separation and to detail the economic and ecological costs and benefits of separating the two iconic waters.

We are glad to have Mayor Daley in our corner. Now we need Illinois lawmakers in the House of Representatives to support the House bill. Their Senate colleagues—Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Roland Burris (D-Ill.)—have sponsored the legislation. Right now, only Michigan Members of Congress are signed on but this bill deserves the backing of the entire Great Lakes Congressional delegation—especially those in Illinois.

Please call the Capitol Hill Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask for your member to contact Adam Pradko in Rep. Camp’s office to cosponsor the bill.

Supreme Court Rejects Second Attempt to Close Chicago Locks

tpache — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 13:05:54 +0000

The Supreme Court once again decided not to close the locks as a temporary way to halt the advance of Asian carp into the Great Lakes. The courts will still be deciding whether or not to reopen the century old locks case in April that Michigan and six other Great Lakes states have brought against Illinois.

“Our motion was an extraordinary attempt to protect the Great Lakes, but we felt it was necessary to because the Court deserved to have access to the new DNA and economic information before making a decision,” said Michigan AG Mike Cox. “

Cox brought a renewed request to close the locks after new eDNA evidence revealed the fish are in Calumet Harbor at the very mouth of Lake Michigan. The Courts rejected the injunction for a second time yesterday.

“We will continue to focus on the reopening of the diversion case in April, with the goal of developing an effective plan to protect the entire Great Lakes region from the devastating threat of Asian carp,” stated Cox.

On April 16, the Court will review the request for hearings focused on a long-term solution that would involve separating the Mississippi River basin from the Great Lakes basin.

Waiting to Act Until Carp is Netted a Flawed Policy

tpache — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 14:30:37 +0000

Trying to net an Asian carp in the Chicago Sanitary and Shipping Canal is proving as illusive as Osama Bin Laden in the caves of Torre Bora – still, that doesn’t mean we should lull ourselves into complacency and assume that the fish are not there. We have DNA evidence that proves that the fish are in the canal, past the barrier, and in the mouth of Lake Michigan. State and federal agencies need to do everything they can to stop the carp from taking hold in the Great Lakes. Waiting for a dead body to surface before we act is a tragically flawed policy. Here’s why:

“These are incredibly hard fish to catch when there are not many of them,” Duane Chapman, a biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, tells Dan Egan of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Experts contend that only 1 percent of the entire fish population can be expected to be harvested, and as Egan reports “only a handful of Asian carp are within that overall population, odds are it’s going to be darn hard to land an Asian carp.”

Put another way: If there are enough Asian carp past the barrier and in Lake Michigan to make netting one easy, we’re in serious trouble. There are no longer any excuses for delay. We have known for nearly two decades that the fish were making their way up the Mississippi River toward our fresh water fishtopia, but instead of acting quickly and decisively, we acted slowly. It took years to finally build an electric barrier to stop the movement of harmful species between the Great Lakes and Mississippi River–it was originally intended to prevent the round goby from invading the Mississippi, though was not built in time. Then, the Army Corps refused to turn on the voltage to provide maximum security. Then, based on the realistic possibility that the fish had breached the electric barrier, the feds decided to use eDNA sampling to see if the Asian carp were present–and voila! there they were. Now the feds are hesitant.

We have clear, scientific evidence that the fish are present beyond the barrier and in the mouth of Lake Michigan. As Jennifer Nalbone, from Great Lakes United said recently on the issue: “If DNA evidence is good enough to put criminals in jail, DNA evidence should be good enough to pull out all the stops to protect the Great Lakes.” We need to focus as a region and nation on the long-term solution of separating the Mississippi River and Great Lakes basins, we need state and federal agencies to act decisively to prevent the carp from taking hold in the Great Lakes.

Long-Range Thinking Could Save Chicago From Asian Carp Catastrophe

tpache — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 13:21:17 +0000

The Chicago Tribune ran a story about the economic damage that closing the locks would cause to the cities summer tourist industry. The Army Corps is considering limiting the number of times the locks are opened and closed to hamper the spread of the Asian carp into Lake Michigan. But worrying over this tourist season is short- term thinking because if the fish get a foothold in the canals and eventually the lakes the tourism industry will suffer a much more serious blow.

The reason is simple: no one will want to take tour boats through a sea of leaping 100 lb fish.

While lock closure is important, it certainly isn’t a fail safe and that is why we are also supporting beefing up the electronic barriers, building barriers to prevent flooding from carrying the fish from the Des Plaines River into the lakes and other immediate strategies. The best strategy is a long-term one that will permanently separate the two ecosystems in a way that still allows barges and tour boats to operate through the locks and creates more jobs in the process.

Everyone needs to be thinking long-term right now – it is best for the ecology and the economy. While it is easy to understand why folks that are concerned with feeding a family of four and paying the mortgage right now are concerned with right now; putting off the problem will only make it worse for them next year or the year after that when the entire industry is killed by these flying fish. If we do this right, there may be some initial pain but we can beat these invaders and limit the damage they do to our way of life.

Carpageddon Devours GLRI Funds

tpache — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 16:26:34 +0000

If it wasn’t bad enough that the Federal plan for dealing with the carp is short sighted, now Carpageddon is eating into the historic Great Lakes Restoration Initiative funding. The Feds are paying for their $78.5 million battle plan (weak as it is) with the $475 million GLRI funds.

We fought long and hard for those dollars. Now a significant portion will not go toward Great Lakes restoration priorities, but instead will be spent on fish poison, electronic barriers (that have yet to be turned on at full voltage), increased monitoring and flood control. Meanwhile, the one urgent move the Feds could make – closing the locks until a permanent separation can be made – remains off the agenda.

“In various meetings with federal officials, they have assured our delegation that they have the necessary funding to address the situation and that they have authority to close the locks,” Mich. Sen. Carl Levin (D) stated. He added that he was not happy with the way the agencies are budgeting for the problem. “The Administration is relying on funding from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) to supplement Asian carp control efforts. That was not the purpose of that long fought-for initiative.”

Not only do these fish threaten the $7 billion Great Lakes sport fishery and all the business and real estate values that are attached to it, but their invasion will also render useless our plan to restore the region’s economy. The Brookings Institution found that restoring the Great Lakes would bring the region $2 for every $1 invested in restoration activities. The President’s commitment in his first budget of $475 million put us on track to begin this economic renaissance, but now it is being devoured by the worst possible invasive species.

The lackluster response from the White House and agencies begs the question: will Carpageddon become Obama’s Katrina?

Michigan AG Asks Court To Reconsider Lock Closure; Study Shows Illinois Exaggerated Economic Impact

tpache — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:24:45 +0000

Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox has filed a new motion with the US Supreme Court asking for an immediate injunction to close Chicago-area locks because the Court did not have all the information (ie that Carp eDNA was already in Lake Michigan) when they rejected the first motion. In addition, a study by Wayne State University transportation experts draws serious doubts over Illinois’ claim that even a temporary closure of the locks would devastate the local economy.

Cox has seized on the revelation that new eDNA evidence that the Asian carp were in Lake Michigan was available three days before the Supreme Court made it’s decision, but was not released to the public until after the Court denied the injunction. Apparently, in earlier legal filings the Feds and Illinois promised to “revisit the conclusions related to lock closure” if new information became available. Cox is hanging this latest attempt on these words.

Michigan is supported in this suit by Pennsylvania, New York, Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota and Ontario in Canada. But the Supreme Court still has not decided to hear the case and if they do it won’t happen until late February – in the meantime, it is essential that those locks are closed since they are the major entryway for the Asian carp into the Great Lakes ecosystem.

Illinois has the support of the Obama Administration in their effort to keep the locks open. They have argued that closing them – even temporarily while the court makes their decision – would force them to lose millions of dollars and thousands of jobs. But a new report, Chicago Waterway System Ecological Separation: The Logistics and Transportation Related Cost Impact of Waterway Barriers by John Taylor, PhD and James Roach – transportation experts at Wayne State University – found that these claims were “seriously exaggerated.” Taylor finds that the annual cost of closure would amount to $70 million and not $190 million as Illinois claims.

And they aren’t the only ones exaggerating! On a recent PBS NewsHour broadcast, Del Wilkins of Illinois Marine Towing told reporters that the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal system moves 16.9 million tons of cargo. This is sharply contrasted by the study that found that in 2008 only 39 “loaded barges” used the Chicago Lock carrying 105,000 tons of cargo. Maybe Wilkins was talking about a century’s worth of deliveries and not one year.

Experts also said that a barrier at the Chicago Lock would have little effect on shippers on the North and South Branches of the Chicago River. “The large majority of cargo to these shippers passes through the CSSC and would be unaffected by the closure of either the Chicago or O’Brien locks.” In fact, the canal system would largely remain open to barge traffic after a lock closure – even so – it must be noted that cargo that runs through the O’Brien Lock has been down in recent years by 45 percent. Cox points out that this shows it is a industry in decline and isn’t as significant to Chicago’s $521 billion economy as some would have us think.

Some (in the barge industry) have argued that trucks and rail wouldn’t have the capacity to move cargo as efficiently, but this study finds that truck traffic would only increase by 1/10 of 1 percent while closing the locks would bring jobs to the region as new modes of transporting goods – like trucking – would be necessary.

In every Great Lakes state the effort to stop the Asian carp has been bipartisan – another example of the extent of this crisis to our region’s economy. When President Obama introduced the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative in 2009 he pledged zero tolerance for new invasive species. (That is literally the only statement we have from the President on Asian carp.) So why is his US Solicitor General Elena Kagan supporting the state of Illinois and their exaggerated economic statistics? Especially when even the bloated dollar signs Illinois is pushing do not come anywhere near the billions of lost dollars the eight state region and Canada will suffer if the Asian carp are allowed to populate the Great Lakes.

White House Summit on Asian Carp Could Get Crowded

tpache — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 19:01:17 +0000

Attorney Generals from five Great Lakes states have asked to be at the table when the Administration holds a summit to discuss the Asian Carp crisis. AGs from Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin want a chance to express regional concerns over the carp.

“It is our hope the bi-partisan team of Attorneys General leading the battle to protect jobs and the Lakes will have a seat at the table with the White House to help find a solution to this crisis,” said Michigan AG Mike Cox. Cox has been leading the legal challenge to force Illinois to close the locks and come up with a permanent solution to keep the carp out of the Lakes.

After the US Supreme Court chose not to issue an injunction to close the locks, Great Lakes Governors asked the White House for a summit meeting on the crisis. Council on Environmental Quality Head Nancy Sutley immediately offered to meet with the Governors during the first week of February in Washington or the region. Since then the environmental community and Great Lakes stakeholders have asked to be included in the meeting, and now the Attorney Generals.

When discussing the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, President Obama promised zero tolerance for new invasive species. Cox is now citing the President’s former quote while asking President Obama to have the locks closed while a solution to the crisis is worked out. “The Great lakes $7 billion fishery and over 800,000 Michigan jobs are connected to the health of the lakes,” Cox stated.

The letter requesting a place at the table for the AG’s was signed by Michigan’s Cox, Indiana AG Greg Zoeller, Ohio AG Richard Cordray, Pennsylvania AG Tom Corbett and Wisconsin’s AG J.B. Van Hollen.

Carp eDNA in Lake Makes Meeting with the President More than Necessary

tpache — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 12:33:55 +0000

The Asian Carp eDNA has been found in the Calumet Harbor at the mouth of Lake Michigan, past the O’Brien Locks and the Electric Barrier, meanwhile the Supreme Court has failed to force the closure of the locks and has until mid-February before it will decide whether or not to hear the suit brought to it by six Great Lakes States in an effort to stop the voracious carp from getting a foothold in the Great Lakes ecosystem.

The Great Lakes Governors have called on the US President to hold a summit with them to address this most urgent issue. So far the Obama Administration has shown support for Illinois and for keeping the locks open. The Army Corps said yesterday that they do not intend to close the locks.

Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox, who has been leading the court challenge to try and close the locks, reacted to the news that fish eDNA was found in the lake.“Michigan residents are outraged that President Obama’s administration and Illinois officials refuse to take immediate action despite continued and escalating evidence of an immediate threat.”

“If Illinois and the US Army Corps don’t want to temporarily close the locks, then they need to tell the country what steps they will take, including the preparation for permanent separation of these watersheds,” said Jeff Skelding, national campaign director for HOW. “We can’t wait another two months let alone another two minutes to know how one-fifth of the worlds fresh surface water will be protected from these monsters.”

So, now we sit and wait for Washington and Illinois, while the Carp proliferate in our Lakes.

US Supreme Court Makes No Move to Stop Asian Carp

tpache — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 13:48:30 +0000

For the second time in two weeks, the US Supreme Court chose not to deal with the state of Michigan’s request for an injunction to close the locks that threaten to let the Asian Carp into Lake Michigan via the Chicago Sanitary and Shipping Canal.

Since lodging the lawsuit to stop the carp, New York, Wisconsin, Ohio and Minnesota have joined Michigan, while Indiana and Canada have shown support. In a letter to the President, fifty members of Congress also asked for the locks to be closed and for consideration of a more permanent separation of the basins. Even some Illinois lawmakers agreed by signing their names, but President Obama has sided with Chicago (but then we know the depth and entanglement of Chicago political roots). Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox has asked Great Lakes residents to show their support by signing an e-petition that will be sent to President Obama in hopes of changing his mind.

The courts are closed on Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. day and there has been no indication as to whether they will choose to take up the injunction or even decide to take up the case on Tuesday. Perhaps, Sen. Dick Durban (D-Ill.) was right when he pleaded with the Great Lakes states to deal with this in Congress instead of in the courtroom. It would seem that we would get a less political decision out of the courts but time is of the essence and urgency is not part of the US Supreme Court’s culture.

News Reports Accuse MidWest of Hysterical React to Asian Carp

tpache — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 16:27:46 +0000

Hysterical? Questionable DNA? Ever seen a 100 plus pound flying fish? Even if scientists didn’t find fish DNA beyond the Electric Barrier in the Chicago Sanitary and Shipping Canal -just miles from the entry to Lake Michigan (which they did)- the fish presence in the Mississippi and Des Plaines River is enough to call for a permanent separation of the Basins.

News reports from Illinois to Los Angeles are calling the six states that are pressing a lawsuit against Illinois to keep the Asian Carp out of the lakes ecosystem: hysterical. (Apparently, reporters in LA haven’t seen UTUBE recently and viewed how the fish own the rivers they take over.) Most of the accusations are being made by those supporting a $1.5 billion local (and I mean local – like Greater Chicago) shipping and freight-hauling business. But I’m sorry, that is just a pittance when you think of the $7 billion regional fishing industry and the total destruction of the historic ecosystem of the lakes. Bloomberg News recently wrote that if the Asian Carp enter the lakes they would threaten bond ratings, cause the collapse of the region’s sport fishing industry, negatively impact tourism, devalue vacation home property, and cost millions of jobs.

The US Supreme Court is expected to take up the filing by the end of the week. Michigan was the first state to bring the lawsuit in an attempt to force Illinois to shut the locks and plan for a permanent hydrological separation of the basins. Soon after, Indiana, Ohio, New York, Minnesota and Wisconsin joined the suit. That leaves only one Great Lakes state out of the mix, Pennsylvania, but there are still a few days to go and anything is possible.

It is imperative that politics does not prevail in this case. It is also important that the truth of this dangerous situation is kept in the forefront of any and all decisions. If the Courts rule in favor of the economy they will be ruling in favor of the Great Lakes ecology because the Asian Carp are bad for both. The fish must be stopped from getting a hold in the Great Lakes system. This is not hysterical or poor science, unfortunately it is reality, and six out of seven states are all calling for the same solution. As are the 50 members of Congress – several of whom are from Illinois – who sent a letter to the US President just before Christmas.

In this case, the facts speak for themselves and it just so happens that the facts represent a crisis that could cause ecological devastation and economic hardship for an entire region. Does that make anyone feel a little hysterical? Hmmmm.