Environmentalists want stronger carp control plan
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. -- Cargo and passenger vessel operators begged federal officials Friday not to close Chicago shipping locks to prevent Asian carp from invading the Great Lakes, but others said there was no good alternative and demanded quick action.
Maritime industry representatives packed a public meeting in Chicago called by agencies crafting a strategy for keeping the carp from gaining a foothold in Lake Michigan. Dozens said interrupting passage through the locks would kill jobs and hammer the city's economy.
"It's our livelihood at stake," said Chip Collopy, owner of Shoreline Sightseeing. Added Ken Wagner, whose tour boat regularly cruises through the locks: "A knee-jerk decision could put people like me out of business."
Although outnumbered at the standing-room-only gathering, environmentalists and charter fishing boat skippers reminded the crowd that a carp infestation could have dire consequences for the entire Great Lakes economy, including its $7 billion fishery.
"Our fishing industry relies on a clean and healthy Lake Superior," Larry MacDonald, mayor of Bayfield, Wis., told officials from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Army Corps of Engineers and other departments.
Asian carp are ravenous eating machines that can grow to 4 feet in length and 100 pounds. Biologists say once established in the lakes, they could disrupt the food chain and starve out popular sport species such as salmon and walleye.
A $78.5 million blueprint released by the Obama administration this week includes 25 measures for controlling the carp, which have infested Chicago-area rivers and canals linked to Lake Michigan.
They include strengthening an electric barrier designed to halt the fish's advance, stepped-up DNA testing to determine how many carp may have slipped past the barrier and using nets and electrofishing to nab them.
The plan rejects closing two shipping locks in the waterways as demanded by Michigan and five other states. Instead, it promises to consider keeping them open less often.
But any disruption of lock service was unacceptable to cargo and passenger vessel operators at the meeting. It "risks severe damage to our economy at a time when we can least afford it," said Mike Mini of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce.
Many accused the government of moving hastily toward lock closure.
"This act-now, think-later mentality is politics, and science is not ruling the day," said U.S. Rep. Judy Biggert, an Illinois Republican.
Earlier, however, environmental groups had the opposite complaint: the government plan lacks deadlines for closing the locks and eventually severing the man-made connection between the Great Lakes and Mississippi River systems.
"There really is no more time to wait," Joel Brammeier, president of the Alliance for the Great Lakes, said in a phone conference.
Michigan has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to order the locks closed, a request supported by Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York.
Illinois, which had been the only state opposing lock closure, gained an ally Thursday. In a letter to the White House, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels labeled closure an "extreme action" that would worsen flooding in the region.
But Indiana's attorney general, Greg Zoeller, wasn't necessarily going along. A spokesman said Zoeller would file a brief with the Supreme Court next week at least partly supporting Michigan's lawsuit. Spokesman Bryan Corbin wouldn't say how the brief would stand on lock closure.
"Even though we and Michigan may desire the same outcome, we have not taken any position on the steps Michigan has wanted to do and what they are proposing," Corbin said.