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Asian carp
Quick Hit
by Adam Doster
8:53am
Tue Apr 13, 2010

Where Are The Carp?

In a short piece yesterday about the Asian carp issue, WBEZ included a pretty flippant quote from Mike Borgstrom, who works for a Chicago River tour boat company:

Everybody look down the river here. Beautiful Chicago River. I don't see any silver carp jumping up and down, do you? There's no invasion that everyone seems to be telling us we have here.

Just because Borgstrom hasn't seen the invasive fish swimming along his route doesn't mean they haven't entered the area's waterways. Take a look at this map from the Grand Rapids Press: the downtown stretch of the Chicago River is about the only waterway in the area where carp DNA hasn't yet been found.  It also shows why there is serious cause for concern that the Calumet River -- which opens into Lake Michigan at Calumet Harbor on the city's South Side -- might serve as the entry point.

Quick Hit
by Adam Doster
5:18pm
Fri Apr 9, 2010
2 comments

A Comprehensive Carp Solution

The Illinois Chamber of Commerce-commissioned study published earlier this week estimated the Chicago region would lose $4.7 billion in economic activity over the next two decades if navigational shipping locks are closed to prevent the invasion of Asian carp into the Great Lakes. There's just one problem, according to Thom Cmar of the Natural Resources Defense Fund: no one is actually proposing that the locks be closed. Rather, environmentalists support a solution involving "hydrological separation." More from his post:

Hydrological separation is not the same thing as closing the locks or closing the canal system.   Under this alternative, barriers would be constructed strategically in the Chicago waterway system to completely eliminate any movement of water between the two ecosystems that might allow invasive organisms to move with it.  If done right, hydrological separation will involve smart, well-planned investments that will establish new, more sustainable infrastructure in the Chicago waterway system.

A hat-tip to Curtis Black, who nicely summarized the post over at Newstips, writing that the choice in this debate is "between a kind of willful, blind resistance and responsible, comprehensive planning." Those wanting to learn more about the issue should check out our recent Asian carp primer.

Quick Hit
by Adam Doster
9:55am
Tue Mar 23, 2010

Asian Carp Battle Not Over Yet

Despite another rebuke from the U.S. Supreme Court, which turned down Michigan's second request to close Chicago-area shipping locks yesterday, officials from neighboring Great Lakes states aren't done fighting for more drastic measures to block Asian carp from invading Lake Michigan. Joel Hood reports in the Tribune today that Midwestern officials will ask the nation's high court in April to consider reopening a 1922 case that attempted to stop Illinois from diverting water from Lake Michigan through the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. Revising that decision could alter the precedent used to block current efforts to seperate the two bodies of water permanently.

Illinois' own Rep. Judy Biggert hailed the decision in a release, echoing arguments made by the state's Attorney General's office. "Our goal should be to kill the Asian carp," she wrote, "not jobs." Environmentalists think that view is short-sided. Economists from Wayne State University estimate that cleaning out a carp-infested lake -- which would disrupt the fishing and boating industries -- would be far more expensive than diverting the small amounts of cargo that moves through the canals currently.