So far - it appears Obama's "zero tolerance" on invasive species as he claimed is now null and void .... since he appears to be doing nothing and not wanting to do anything regarding this imminent disaster. If this is shelved and pushed aside which it will probally be - in the distant future when you see a carp on the lakefront - thank Obama!
Washington - Almost three months after learning that Asian carp had breached the last line of defense for the Great Lakes - an electric barrier on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal - the federal government has put together a plan to try to do something about it.
It calls for tens of millions of dollars to be spent on new barriers, new studies and more fish poison, though much of that money had already been committed for those projects.
Significantly, the plan does not call for an emergency closure of two navigation locks, something politicians outside Illinois have been advocating. The plan will, however, consider periodic lock closures ranging from three or four days a week to weeklong shutdowns a couple of times each month.
Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox is again asking the Supreme Court to order the locks closed full time until the government can figure out how to beat back the voracious fish, which have advanced past the electrical fish barrier on the Illinois canal about 20 miles downstream from Lake Michigan.
The court declined a similar request last month, but Cox, who is running for governor, is repeating the request because of recent news that carp DNA had been found in the open waters of Lake Michigan, adding another layer of urgency.
The idea that the carp can be stopped from swimming into Lake Michigan by shutting the locks for days on end and then periodically reopening them for barges does not sit well with him.
"That sounds as logical as keeping criminals in jail four days a week and hoping the other three days go well," said an e-mail from his office.
Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle, who attended a carp "summit" Monday at the White House, said he pressed "very hard on our view that the locks should be closed."
While he didn't get the answer he wanted, Doyle said the Obama administration is dealing with the problem "in a very significant way."
"I have no doubt they are very much focused on taking this very seriously," he said.
Cox disagreed.
"President Obama proved today that he'll do anything to protect the narrow interests of his home state of Illinois, even if it means destroying Michigan's economy," he said in a statement. "Officials from his administration unveiled a 25-step plan full of half-measures and gimmicks when keeping Asian carp from devastating the Great Lakes $7 billion fishery requires only one step - immediately closing the locks."
Nancy Sutley, chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said after the summit meeting that simply closing the locks would not solve the problem of protecting the Great Lakes from the giant, jumping carp that escaped their Arkansas containment ponds decades ago and have been migrating northward ever since.
"Closing just those two structures would not necessarily be the silver bullet that we're all looking for," she said.
Officials at the meeting included Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson as well as top-level officials with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Not new cash
The plan released Monday touts the $78.5 million that has been committed to the fight, including about $10 million for a third electric fish barrier on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, though preliminary work on that barrier has been well under way for months. It also calls for $13 million for a wall-like barrier to keep fish from riding floodwaters in the carp-infested Des Plaines River into the adjacent canal, which has a direct connection to Lake Michigan. Funding for that project was announced weeks ago.
"I don't see that as a huge bundle of new cash," said Joel Brammeier of the Alliance for the Great Lakes.
The plan also calls for longer-term programs to prevent a breeding population from making its way into the Great Lakes. That includes $5 million to poison areas above the electric barrier if Asian carp are found, and more than $1.5 million in new research funding that will go toward programs to explore carp-specific poisons and methods to disrupt their reproduction. It also commits money toward exploring ways to market the fish as a food source.
And it calls for increased testing for Asian carp DNA in waters above the barrier.
"We think there's still time through a series of measures, a number of different strategies, that will hopefully keep the carp from establishing sustainable populations in the Great Lakes," Sutley said.
Brammeier said he needed more time to review the document before he could comment, though other conservationists said they are disappointed the government isn't taking more aggressive steps.
"I am remarkably underwhelmed," said Henry Henderson of the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Henderson said he is confused why the federal government has decided that closing the locks is now a viable strategy when in the past, federal officials said the aged, leaky structures would not work as an effective barrier.
"It seems to be more politically negotiated than scientifically based," he said.
The new plan calls for looking at how well the locks will act as a barrier to the fish, and environmental and economic consequences of closing the structures, which are used for navigation as well as flood control.
Catering to business
Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn called the framework a "comprehensive mix of immediate, midterm and long-term actions."
"It balances the urgent need to remove Asian carp from the Chicago Area Waterway System with the need to maintain the waterway system for navigation, storm water and wastewater management," he said in a statement. "We have a duty to protect the ecology of the Great Lakes, ensure citizens access to clean, healthy drinking water, while preserving the jobs and businesses that depend on our waterways for shipping and commerce."
Jennifer Nalbone of Great Lakes United, a conservation group, said the plan will do some good, particularly with the funding it sets aside for more research into understanding and controlling the giant carp.
Still, she charged that the plan is "catering to the barge industry."
Nonsense, say barge operators.
"We remain strongly opposed to any lock closure, even temporary or intermittent, as this would significantly disrupt commerce and put towing companies out of business - and hardworking Americans out of a job - without stopping the advance of the carp," said Anne Burns of the American Waterways Operators.
Alliance for the Great Lakes' Brammeier can understand why the barge industry isn't happy that the federal government is considering part-time closures.
He sees it as a significant change in federal policy, even if it might not be the best strategy to keep the carp out in the short term.
"I'm seeing a slow erosion in the case that navigation should continue as usual, and it's not coming from environmental groups, it's coming from the federal government and state governments," he said. "You've got the feds acknowledging that they can and should change navigation to protect the Great Lakes.
"We are reaching the tipping point where it no longer makes sense to invest in navigation as usual," he added. "I think that's the real story here, regardless of what happens in the short term."
http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/83853582.html
