Editorial: Asian Carp Threat Shouldn’t Trigger Bad Solution

The possibility that Asian carp will invade Lake Michigan doesn’t justify closing the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. That is what Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox, et al, want to do; but because carp DNA has been discovered above the electric barriers intended to protect the lakes, there is doubt that closing the canal would prevent the invasion. What is certain is that the closure would destroy millions of dollars in waterborne commerce on the only channel connecting the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River.

The Asian carp can grow up to 100 pounds and consume 20 percent of its weight in plankton, a crucial link in the Great Lakes food chain. Concerned stakeholders claim it could eventually become the dominant species in Lake Michigan. (The invasion threat is pretty much limited to Lake Michigan. Lake Superior-area fish biologists say it is doubtful the carp could exist in the colder waters of Lake Superior.)

Cox, who announced he would file a lawsuit to force closure of the locks, says he will demand that the U.S. Engineers, the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago close the locks until a long-term fix to the crisis can be agreed upon. And according to Echo Press, Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to order Illinois to shut down the canal system. Ohio officials reportedly have joined in the effort, and Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen is considering the situation, Echo Press reports.

Even if the ultimate decision is to close the canal, it will not be done without controversy. For the time being, the region finds itself facing a rock-and-a-hard-place situation. If a carp invasion were to be as drastic as some envision, it could destroy the fishery. While it is not certain that closing the canal would prevent such an invasion, it would most decidedly destroy commerce and change the region’s economics. Many jobs would be lost, according to The American Waterways Operators.

The 28-mile-long Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal was completed in 1900 and linked Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River via a connection between the Chicago and Des Plaines rivers. It is part of the Chicago wastewater system now operated by Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago. Construction during 1903–1907 extended the canal to Joliet. Two more canals were later added: the North Shore Canal in 1910, and the Cal-Sag in 1922.

Lake Michigan, the sixth largest lake in the world and third largest of the Great Lakes, is bordered by Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin. That’s why it is important as a fishery and why the canal is important economically due to water transportation. The trout, salmon, walleye and smallmouth bass fisheries are world class. Anglers from those four states regularly issue reports on steelhead, coho and Chinook salmon; lake and brown trout, smallmouth and largemouth bass, perch and walleye.

Then there is the other side of the coin. As Chicago-area journalist Mike Danahey writes, many products reach the area by barge, including mulch to winterize gardens, antifreeze to protect cars from imminent cold weather, salt to melt ice and snow off local roads, and cement to build the I-355 extension to I-80.

“There is a good chance these goods (and myriad others) made their way to the Chicago area floating on a barge,” he wrote. Bulk products usually move by barge because it is not economically feasible to move them by truck or rail.

Danahey quoted Todd Hudson, commercial director for American River Transportation Company (ARTCO), Lemont, as saying that during the first eight months of 2007, fully 15,000 loaded barges and 10,000 empties locked through at Lockport. The Rock Island Engineer District, citing preliminary reports for 2009, indicates that some 10,240,591 tons of cargo will have passed through the Lockport facility. Tonnage totals have decreased over the last several years due, in part at least, to a slowdown in the construction trade. AEP River Operations business manager Bill Arnold told how “using the waters takes pressure off the already congested road system and saves some energy as well.”

There is good reason to protect both the lake fishery and water transportation on the canal, but the threat to Lake Michigan is not imminent. The physical closing of a canal would almost instantly destroy water transport in that area and spell economic chaos to transporters and shippers. A knee-jerk reaction is not the solution. If further evidence suggests that the electronic barriers will not work, then researchers should seek other ways to eliminate the carp.

And maybe the situation is not as gloomy as it appears. In November 2009 a six-mile stretch of waterway above the barrier was poisoned to kill fish that might have gotten through. Only one dead carp was reported. It stands to reason that Cox and company may be over-reacting. In the meantime, efforts can continue to capture and kill carp. Not as facetious as it may sound, perhaps the carp could be injected with a hormone to stop reproduction. Even a $1-per-pound bounty has been suggested. In a country like ours, we should be able to come up with a more creative and more fail-safe solution to this problem.

There may be others who want to see the canal shut down for different reasons, but protecting the fishery does not and should not require closure.

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