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Asian Carp Watch


SKollmann

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This week the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the long term closing of the lakefront locks. That sound decision is buoyed by the fact that searching scientists, who have been looking for weeks, have not found any Asian carp above the barrier at Romeoville. Those scientists represent the Asian Carp Working Group, the collection of government agencies that developed a carp-prevention plan, which is up for public comment with a deadline of this Friday, March 26.*

 

After reviewing the details, Friends of the Chicago River submitted a letter stating that we, too, are against closing the locks at all and we exhorted the Working Group to:

 

• Consider the fact that the Chicago and Calumet rivers have become dramatically healthier in the last 30 years and that progress must be cherished and protected

 

• Remember that closing the locks intermittently and poisoning the river (which is still on the table) will not keep the carp out but will destroy decades of improvement to the river and the new life in and along the river that is there as a result

 

• Follow the law using environmental impact statements and plans for remediation, with funding, for our rivers if they cause environmental harm

 

• Advance the Inter-basin study and consider creative solutions to ecological separation such as ship lifts and improve and enforce ballast water laws

 

• Use this disastrous development as an opportunity to advance our knowledge of our aquatic environment by including ongoing monitoring of all fish and other wildlife impacted by the framework plan. That information could be used to improve and protect it in the future.

 

Meeting Clean Water Act goals for all our waters would protect our rivers and the lake. The river would then be able to support much larger numbers of recreators in addition to the ever-increasing wildlife populations. Their value to the region would be enhanced. We must protect the river and stop the carp.

 

*carpcomments@gmail.com

 

 

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