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Sunday, July 04, 2010

Environment - Asian Carp raises its ugly head again

From commentary today by Sylvia A. Smith, Washington editor of the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette:

WASHINGTON – Who would have thought a mere fish could cause a huge Washington battle, a Supreme Court case, cross-state conflict and potential devastation for two industries?

Meet the Asian carp.

Thirty years ago, an Arkansan fish farmer imported an Asian carp, which is not native to the U.S., eats voraciously (gaining a pound or two each month) and kills native species.

It’s migrated up the Mississippi River and threatens Lake Michigan. One was found in Chicago’s Lake Calumet, six miles past an electric barrier designed to stop the fish.

Everyone – no one seems to like this behemoth – is afraid it will reproduce in massive numbers throughout the Great Lakes.

That part is alarming to the $7 billion-a-year commercial and recreational fishing industries of the Great Lakes. They want accelerated government action to kill the Asian carp and block its migration northward.

One of the ways to do that (and no one has a fool-proof method) involves closing the locks in Chicago and northwest Indiana, which would be harmful to the shipping industry to the tune of $70 million in additional costs transportation costs. The lock system is the only way to get water-shipped goods between the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes. Plus, the locks are a flood-control measure in northwest Indiana, and many people’s homes are at stake.

An Asian carp was found within the past year south of the dam in Roush Lake in Huntington County. Although the Wabash doesn’t drain into the Great Lakes basin, some lawmakers are concerned that during flooding, an Asian carp from the Wabash River will find its way to the Maumee River in Fort Wayne. The Maumee does drain into Lake Erie. * * *

Indiana’s Department of Natural Resources is providing information to federal agencies that are trying to figure out just how realistic the Wabash-to-Maumee-to-Erie pathway is for a giant fish.

There is no natural connection between the waterways. But when the St. Marys River floods enough, the area around Fox Island Park is where it backs up. That’s also the vicinity of the flood zone for the Little Wabash River. Could an Asian carp from the Little Wabash River somehow get past the 91-foot dam at Roush Lake, be swept by floodwaters into Fox Island and from there be carried into the St. Marys and then to the Maumee River in downtown Fort Wayne and from there to Lake Erie? * * *

People in Fort Wayne have a legitimate expectation that no barrier between their houses and the flood plain will be erected.

This is one of those almost intractable problems that governments face. There are pressures – in this case, valid pressures – from all sides, and it is difficult to see how this ends up in a win-win solution.

Indiana doesn’t welcome the Asian carp and would prefer it go away. But the state’s interests lie more with keeping the locks and shipping lanes open. However, Indiana is moving into a position of weakness in Washington.

Meanwhile in Gary, Mark Taylor writes in the Post Tribune:
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reiterated concern this week that closing the locks on the Chicago Shipping and Sanitation Canal to prevent the release of Asian Carp into Lake Michigan and the Great Lakes could aggravate flooding in regional rivers and waterways, including the Little Calumet River.

On Thursday, a group of 14 U.S. senators and more than 30 House representatives signed a letter to President Obama expressing their desire for "pursuing an aggressive strategy for permanent hydrologic separation" to prevent the carp species from entering the Great Lakes.

While that strategy to close the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal -- which connects the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River through the Des Plaines River -- could curtail the passage of the carp into Lake Michigan, Army Corps of Engineers officials said they feared greater flooding would occur during heavy rains if the locks were closed, sentiments shared by the Little Calumet River Basin Development Commission.

And Gitte Laasby, environmental reporter for the Tribune, has a long story headed "Corps: No Asian carp here yet."

Posted by Marcia Oddi on July 4, 2010 07:51 PM
Posted to Environment