Governor: locks will stay open, $75-80M from feds to continue Asian carp battle

Chicago’s locks will stay open–for now–but new money will flow to Illinois to bolster the battle against Asian carp.

Following a Feb. 8 White House summit of Great Lakes state governors on Asian carp, the federal government plans to spend $75-$80 million in a series of steps to keep the invasive species out of the Great Lakes, where the filter-feeding fish could significantly alter the ecology.

The federal government will expedite construction of a third fish barrier downstream of two existing electric fish barriers already on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, according to Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle. Construction on this third barrier is expected to begin this May and be completed by September, Doyle said.

Doyle, with all other Great Lakes state governors except Illinois’, had pushed the White House to close the Chicago area locks. The locks are seen as a last line of defense against the northward movement of Asian carp from the Mississippi River and its tributaries–connected artificially to Lake Michigan in the Chicago area by canal–but the locks were not designed to block fish.

The feds did not order the locks closed. But Doyle said a new Army Corps of Engineers report to consider full or partial closure of the locks is expected in early March.

Federal money will also go to infrastructure intended to limit spillage between the Des Plaines River and adjacent Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, which could provide another pathway for invasive species during flood conditions.

Netting and shocking of fish in the canal also remains ongoing, Doyle said, as authorities look to document just how prolific the carp are and how far they have spread.

Doyle spoke to reporters by conference call following the Feb. 8 Asian carp summit at the White House where Great Lakes states governors met with Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, Environmental Protection Agency Director Lisa Jackson, head of the Army Corps of Engineers, and others.

Doyle called it a “very significant meeting” and said he appreciated that the Asian carp issue was getting cabinet-level attention. He contrasted the current level of federal investment with prior years when the Army Corps required significant state support to build the fish barrier.

Doyle admitted there were concerns on both sides of the locks issue, but had hoped the White House would accept his argument that the effects of a sustainable population of Asian carp invading the Great Lakes would be irreversible, while economic harm from closing the locks would be temporary.

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