Run Gauntlet the
Proposal would strengthen ‘bottleneck of defenses’ designed to keep Asian carp out of Great Lakes
using sound systems to create “complex noise” underwater that would deter fish from the Brandon Road area, plus installing a new approach channel and placing an electric barrier at its downstream end that would repel fish and stun them if they get too close. Brandon Road is several miles downstream from an existing barrier network in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal.
Other measures would include installing water jets to wash away “small and stunned fish” that might be caught up around barges, plus a new lock where floating invasive species could be flushed away and rapid-response boat mooring and launch spots.
The report says the federal government would pay 65 percent of the project’s costs, with the rest coming from an unidentified “non-federal sponsor,” which Illinois officials said probably meant their state. A massive influx of food-chain disruptors would quickly impact Canadian sport and commercial fisheries. Murray said that while the Canadians invest in research in Asian carp, he knows of no legislation that would authorize Canada to “belly up to the bar” in co-financing an invasion-prevention plan with the United States.
If the Army Corps project was implemented, “Illinois taxpayers would be on the hook for over $95 million in construction cost and another $8 million in annual operation and maintenance costs,” said Illinois Lt. Gov. Evelyn Sanguinetti.
Despite the benefit of protecting the lakes from voracious Asian carp, the Army corps acknowledged its preferred approach could affect other wildlife species, So far, he said, environmental from turtles, frogs and otters DNA surveys have found no caught in the electric current to traces of silver, black or big head native fish whose migration paths carp in Presque Isle Bay, but a reproducing would be interrupted. population of grass The National Wildlife Federation carp have lived there for years. said the Army Corps plan to
Pennsylvania steelhead make Asian carp “run the gauntlet” streams are probably too small for before they reach the Brandon Asian carp breeding, he said, but Road lock looked promising. reproduction could occur in any of “While we are still evaluating the big rivers that empty into Lake the draft report, our initial reaction Erie from other is that a combination of these states and provinces. options could possibly reduce the chance that an Asian carp gets
The Army through at each stage,” said Marc corps said the Smith, Great Lakes Conservation plan outlined in Director for the National Wildlife the 488-page document Federation. is intended The corps will take public comments to block the path on the report until Sept. 21. of invasive species After a feasibility study and series “while minimizing of federal and state reviews, a final impacts to version is scheduled for release in waterway uses August 2019. Congressional approval and users.”approval and funding would be required Elected officials to begin construction, and business leaders which could be finished by 2025. in Illinois and In a summer fishing season Indiana have said when 50- to 70-walleye hookups that significant are common and the perch bite is changes to the solid, this could be as good as it Brandon Road gets. complex could “If the Asian carp come it will hamper cargo have some impact on fishing, and I shipment on the think there’s no question they’re busy waterway. coming,” he said. “I wonder if
Among technologies there’s some inevitability to it.” the report endorses is - By The Associated Press THIS WEEK: Should Canada add to U.S. federal dollars being spent to keep invasive Asian carp out of the Great Lakes? • Yes • No • LAST WEEK: Should the general public help to fund ring-necked pheasant recovery programs?