Chicago Asked To Take A Bullet In The Battle Against The Asian Carp

The lawsuit to prevent the Asian Carp from entering the great lakes would mean a return to the past.
At Chicago Portage National Historic Site on south Harlem Avenue a 50 yard long path connects the parking lot with a small winding pond that was once the main course of the Des Plaines River. A rusty steel sculpture depicts Father Jacques Marquette and his men carrying their cargo over land the same way it had been done for the prior 7000 years. No history of the City of Chicago is complete with out the story of Father Marquette’s portage as the beginnings of the city’s history and the great 19th century inland waterway that connected New York with New Orleans. The portage remained in use until the 1848 when the Illinois Michigan Canal was completed and the course of the Des Planes and Chicago rivers were permanently altered.

Nearly 150 years later historic flooding on the Mississippi set these carp free from catfish farms to begin their own inland journey from New Orleans to New York City.

U.S. Rep. Dave Camp has introduced legislation called CARP ACT, (Close All Routes and Prevent Asian Carp Today) to at least for now, close or erect barriers to prevent the intrusion of the giant Asian carp in to the great lakes. The closures would continue until measures were taken to prevent the carp from entering the lakes.

Currently, an electric barrier on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal (CSSC) is all that prevents the fish from spreading into the Great Lakes. Recently discovered just a mile from the barrier, the carp have also been found in waterways less than 100 feet from the canal, and could bypass the barrier completely if a heavy rain causes the Des Plaines River to flood.

In December, a law suit was filed by a number of great lake states to shut the locks of the Chicago River and Calumet Harbor. In addition to asking for the Chicago locks to be closed immediately, the lawsuit also seeks to permanently sever the man-made link between Lake Michigan and Chicago waterways by closing the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, where the dead Asian carp was found in December. The Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan argues that closing the canals would cost hundreds of jobs and stop up to 1.5 billion dollars of commerce.

While the concern for jobs and trade is a very real one, it begs the question: will keeping the canals open be worth what promises to be a permanent and final devastating blow to the great lakes ecosystem?

As of January 19th the US Supreme Court weighed in and for now the canals remain open.

Seamus Ford is the editor of editor Low Carbon Home a journal on living a more sustainable life.