 In addition to knocking on the door of Lake Michigan, Asian carp are also advancing up the Wabash River system which could allow for their potential movement into the Maumee River, a tributary to Lake Erie. Under normal conditions, there is no direct link between the Wabash River and the Maumee River. However, tributaries and drainage ditches near Eagle Marsh, a 705-acre restored wetland on the southwest side of Fort Wayne, Indiana, provide a potential connection under certain flooding conditions. As an immediate preventive measure, the Indiana DNR will install mesh fencing across a section of the marsh, creating a barrier against passage of Asian carp between the Wabash and Maumee drainage basins. The goal is to have the fencing installed this summer. Although Chicago waterways remain the likeliest entry point for Asian carp into the Great Lakes, if Asian carp cross the divide at Eagle Marsh and reach the Maumee, they would be in the Lake Erie drainage basin and additional more costly and invasive steps would be required to protect the Great Lakes from the threat.
Additionally, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn announced a new initiative to help stop the spread of invasive Asian carp species into the Great Lakes. Illinois is entering into an agreement with Chinese meat processing company Beijing Zhuochen Animal Husbandry Company and Big River Fisheries located in Pearl, Ill. to harvest 30 million pounds of carp from Illinois rivers. Big River will process, package and ship the fish to Zhuochen for resale in international markets where the fish is a delicacy.
Five states - Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio, and Pennsylvania – filed a lawsuit on July 19th against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (District) in federal district court. After the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case multiple times, the states filed their joint suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. The states are claiming that that U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago have created a public nuisance through the construction and operation of the Chicago Sanitary Ship Canal which is allowing for the migration of the Asian carp that threatens irreparable harm to the Great Lakes and other public trust resources of the states. The states are requesting a preliminary injunction to make the Corps and District immediately take all available measures to prevent the migration of bighead and silver carp including:
- best available methods to block the passage of, capture or kill bighead and silver carp
- installing block nets or other physical barriers in the Calumet and Little Calumet Rivers
- temporarily closing locks and sluice gates, except as needed for public health and safety installing grates or screens at sluice gates that will not allow fish to pass through if sluice gates are opened
- using rotenone (poison) as needed
The lawsuit also requests a preliminary injunction requiring the Corps to expedite a feasibility study evaluating options for permanent physical separation to be completed within 18 months. Furthermore, the suit seeks to expeditiously implement plans to permanently and physically separate carp-infested waters in the Illinois River basin and the Chicago Area Waterway System from Lake Michigan to prevention migration of Asian carp and other harmful aquatic invasive species.
An initial hearing was held in August followed by a three-day evidentiary hearing in Chicago on September 7th, 8th, and 10th, to allow for expert testimony. Judge Robert Dow of the U.S. District Court in Chicago said he may rule before early December on the case. Additionally, the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians filed a motion to join Michigan and the Great Lakes states in the lawsuit regarding the concern of Asian Carp. It's the first motion by a tribe to join the litigation. A portion of the Brief filed by the Tribe is below: Historically, fishing played a central role in the spiritual and cultural framework of Native American life. As the Supreme Court noted more than a hundred years ago, access to fish and wildlife was "not much less necessary to the existence of the Indians than the atmosphere they breathed." United States v. Winans, 198 U.S. 371, 381 (1905). Not only are the Great Lakes fish culturally important to the Tribes, these communities depend upon fisheries resources for their livelihoods. Moreover, by virtue of the supremacy clause (Article VI, clause 2) of the Constitution, Indian Tribes have a property right in treaty-reserved fishery resources that is paramount to the other economic interests cited by Defendants in defense of the relief requested by Plaintiffs. See Grand Case: 1:10-cv-04457 Document #: 122-7 Filed: 08/31/10 Page 1 of 6 PageID #:4813 On the federal front, many had been urging Obama to appoint a federal coordinated response coordinator for Asian carp. In September, Obama did just that, naming John Goss as the “Asian carp Czar” or ,the official title, chairman of the Asian Carp Regional Coordinating Committee. The Carp Czar reports to an office in the White House and oversees the government-led effort to eradicate the species. To address the advance of the Asian carp towards Lake Erie, Indiana crews have finished installing a nearly 1,200-foot-long, 8 feet high fence designed to prevent adult carp from using the northeastern Indiana marsh to swim from the Wabash River system into the Maumee River and then onto Lake Erie during floods. The fence is bolstered by almost 120 concrete barriers. Construction of the main fence and a supplemental 500-foot-long debris catch fence began in early September. This is a short-term option while the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other federal agencies work to develop a permanent solution to prevent Asian carp from slipping into the Great Lakes through an Indiana marsh. While waiting for the federal government to take further action towards a permanent solution, Great Lakes governors and mayors announced plans to embark on a $2 million study to protect Lake Michigan and the Great Lakes from the advancing Asian carp. The initiative, formally titled Envisioning a Chicago Area Waterway System for the 21st Century, will be led by the Great Lakes Commission and the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway Cities Initiative. The study will go beyond just separation of the Great Lakes and Mississippi Basin, but analyze options that could enhance the flow of cargo through the Chicago area with the use of intermodal transportation centers that would allow cargo to move smoothly between barges, trucks and rails. It will also look at upgrading wastewater treatment options for the Chicago area, considered a first step in any plan to plug the canal system because it will mean that at least some of Chicago's wastewater would once again flow into Lake Michigan. The study is expected to take 18 months. It is being funded by the Great Lakes Protection Fund, established two decades ago by Great Lakes governors to pioneer strategic initiatives to protect the health of the world's largest freshwater system. The study is also receiving a $500,000 grant from Chicago's Joyce Foundation other funding sources are also being secured. Additionally, Canadian and U.S. scientists announced the launch of a joint 18-month study that will look at the likelihood that Asian carp will spread across the Great Lakes and decimate the fish populations if allowed to gain a foothold. Scientists have differed on what is likely to happen if a sizable number breach the barriers and slip into Lake Michigan. Some say the voracious, hardy carp could become established in large sections of the Great Lakes, where they would starve out competitors for plankton and jeopardize the region's $7 billion fishing industry. Some say the lakes might be too cold or have too few tributary rivers where the carp can spawn — and their food supply could run short because zebra and quagga mussels have devoured much of the plankton. The U.S.-Canadian study will focus on such issues. It also will look at other potential doorways to the lakes for the carp and the possible effects of a full-scale invasion on the region's environment and economy. Meanwhile, a new report was released in October by the Natural Resources Defense Council with a finding that building two strategically-placed barriers between the Great Lakes and Chicago River could open the door to a revitalized waterway and surrounding communities, while effectively shutting the door on Asian carp. “Re-Envisioning the Chicago River: Adopting Comprehensive Regional Solutions to the Invasive Species Crisis” studies the impact a separation would have in the complicated Chicago Area Waterway System (CAWS). It is presented as the first big step in an iterative process to find a solution to the invasive species and Chicago River issues and is meant to inform the broader public discourse. The 70+ page technical document has been summarized into a six-page briefing, which is available at http://www.nrdc.org/water/Chicagoriver/Chicagoriver.asp. Similar to the efforts in Indiana, a 13-mile concrete and steel mesh fence that splits the narrow divide between the Des Plaines River and the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal has been completed. The project, paid from the federal Great Lakes Restoration Fund, is designed to keep the Asian carp from breaching the low-lying strip of land between the river and the shipping canal during heavy rains. The fence is only 3 feet tall in some spots along the route, but rises to 8 feet in areas prone to deeper flooding and the mesh openings are designed to block passage for all but the smallest fish eggs and water.
On December 16, 2010, Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox announced his office filed a notice of appeal from the first preliminary court ruling in his lawsuit to stop the advance of Asian carp into the Great Lakes. Attorneys general from Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio and Pennsylvania signed on to Michigan's notice which is appealing the December 2, 2010 ruling that denied Michigan's motion for preliminary injunction. The notice of appeal filed today requests the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals review the district court ruling of December 2, 2010. In that ruling, federal District Court Judge Robert M. Dow, Jr. denied Michigan's motion for preliminary injunction, which called for the temporary closure of the O'Brien and Chicago Locks and blocking other pathways in the Chicago water system, except as needed to protect public health and safety, among other actions. Meanwhile, the preliminary ruling did not halt consideration of the merits of the Great Lakes states' lawsuit. A status conference scheduled for January 7, 2011 will determine future proceedings at the district court level.
Additionally, in collaboration with other Federal and State Agencies, local governments and non-governmental organizations, the USACE is conducting the Great Lakes and Mississippi River Interbasin Study (GLMRIS). GLMRIS will explore options and technologies, collectively known as ANS controls, that could be applied to prevent ANS transfer between the basins through aquatic pathways. As part of this study, USACE will conduct a detailed analysis of various ANS controls, including hydrologic separation.
Some specific tasks of GLMRIS include: - Identify aquatic pathways that may exist between the Great Lakes and Mississippi River Basins.
- Inventory current and future potential aquatic nuisance species.
- Analyze possible ANS controls to prevent or reduce the risk of ANS transfer.
- Analyze the impacts each ANS control may have on existing waterway uses.
- Recommend a plan to prevent or reduce the risk of ANS transfer between the basins and, if necessary, the plan will include mitigation measures for impacted waterway uses and significant natural resources.
The smaller fish are not believed to be close to the barriers, which are near Lockport. The closest small carp are more than 100 miles downstream of the barrier, below Starved Rock State Park, in Chillicothe, officials said. But the possibility that small fish could slip through has led to greater efforts this year to track eggs, larvae and young carp. If spawning is happening in the vicinity of the barrier that that could present a kind of a new and special threat,
As part of a multimillion-dollar investment in fighting Asian carp, the Obama administration has given $7 million to help carry out this year's Asian Carp Monitoring and Rapid Response Plan.
As part of the $7 million Plan are new tools including underwater cameras, nets with super-tight holes, and a big-honking water gun. They are all part of a $7 million program to bolster the electric barriers put in place by the Army Corps of Engineers near Lockport, which are the main line of defense.
Three separate eDNA samples sets were taken at Lake Calumet between June 15 and July 19 and revealed 11 positives (all Silver carp DNA). After three consecutive rounds of eDNA sampling yields positive results for Asian carp DNA, a Monitoring and Rapid Response Plan calls for a Level 1 response In addition to the regular monitoring for the presence of Asian carp, a level 1 response adds commercial fishing crews as well as additional electrofishing boats, larger sweeping nets, called seines, and additional sampling gear to the area during an intensive four day fishing period. The monitoring response is designed to intensify resources and use the best available technology to search for live Asian carp in the Lake Calumet area.
In 2010, the states of Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin sued the United States Army Corp of Engineers and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, seeking injunctive relief aimed at preventing Asian carp from entering into Lake Michigan through the man-made Chicago Area Waterway System ("CAWS"), which connects Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River. The district court for the Northern District of Illinois denied plaintiffs' request for a preliminary injunction and the denial of the preliminary injunction was appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
In August, noting that federal and state agencies are already mounting efforts to halt the migration of invasive Asian carp into Lake Michigan, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit recently rejected the Great Lakes states’ request for a preliminary injunction.
The district court had denied the states’ request for a preliminary injunction, concluding that the problem had not yet advanced to present an immediate threat. The states immediately appealed. However, the panel noted the new evidence could come to light that could require more drastic action to prevent the advancement of Asian carp into Lake Michigan, and the district court would have the authority to revisit the question of whether a preliminary injunction is warranted.
In light of the judgement, six attorneys general in the Great Lakes region called for a multistate coalition that would push the federal government to protect the lakes from invasive species such as Asian carp by cutting off their artificial link to the Mississippi River basin. The appeal came from Michigan’s Attorney General Bill Schuette along with the attorney generals from Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. They requested assistance from 27 of their counterparts across the Mississippi basin as well as Western states such as Nevada, where other waterways have been infested by zebra mussels believed to have been transported from the Great Lakes. They urged support for legislation that would direct the Corp to timely complete the study to determine the feasibility and best means of implements hydrologic separation of the Great Lakes and Mississippi River Basin.
As a result of the appeal, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette announced that the newly formed national coalition of seventeen attorneys general fighting the spread of Asian carp and other aquatic invasive species though Chicago waterways have sent a letter to the leaders of three Congressional committees calling for them to move federal legislation (H.R. 892, S. 471) that would force a quicker resolution to the on-going study currently being conducted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. In particular, the coalition called for legislation to:
- Slash three years off the current Army Corps of Engineers’ study, from the end of 2015 to the end of 2012;
- Direct the President (or his designee) to oversee the study and ensure it is completed on time;
- Require the Army Corps to use information found in independent studies of the problem rather than duplicating such efforts, thereby speeding up the process;
- Force the Army Corps to use the Congressionally-mandated standard of “preventing” the spread of invasive species instead of their unilateral decision to instead look for ways to merely “reduce the risk” of such a spread.
The 16 states joining with Michigan so far include Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
Additionally, federal officials announced they will be improving two crucial weapons in the fight to prevent Asian carp from invading the Great Lakes: the electric fish barrier near Chicago and an early-warning system that detects carp DNA in waterways.
The Corps announced it was turning up the juice on the barrier. The increase will occur this fall. After significant testing to assess the safety and effectiveness of the barrier at these higher operating parameters, the testing shows there is no appreciable increase in risk to public safety with an increase of operational parameters from the current settings of 2.0 volts to the new settings of 2.3 volts. However, it also shows that operating barriers IIA and IIB concurrently increases the area of risk for a person in the water and an increased potential for sparking in adjacent fleeting areas. The Corps does not intend to operate barriers IIA and IIB simultaneously.
In addition, the Corps released the Independent External Peer Review (IEPR) for testing Asian Carp environmental DNA (eDNA). The panel determined that the eDNA sampling and testing methodology is sound for detecting silver and bighead carp DNA but confirmed that the eDNA technology cannot indicate the source of Asian carp DNA. As such, research to improve the system is under way toward refining the tool to provide more of the kinds of information that the independent review team pointed out would be useful such as answering questions such as whether the DNA came from live carp and, if so, how many. The Independent External Peer Review (IEPR) can be accessed at http://www.usace.army.mil/CECW/PlanningCOP/Documents/peer/eDNA_review.pdf. |