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As a member of the Great Lakes Initiative I thought it important to relay this information to you.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Must Take Emergency Action to Stop Asian Carp from Entering the Great Lakes! Contact your federal representative, senators and the Army Corps immediately as Asian carp have reached the electrical barrier operating in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal (CSSC). Teams of scientists are monitoring the canal above and below the barrier several times weekly.
Stopping the carp and future invaders permanently will require complete separation of the Great Lakes from the Mississippi River. But right now, carp have surrounded the CSSC by invading waterways less than 100 feet from the CSSC. There is an urgent threat of the carp entering Lake Michigan if the Des Plaines River floods. The carp are in the River, which in some places are only yards away from the CSSC. The I&M Canal is connected to the CSSC by small culverts that the carp could swim through during heavy rains. The barrier won’t stop the carp from invading Lake Michigan if floodwaters spill over the banks of the Des Plaines River and into the CSSC!
The Army Corps can’t control the weather, but they can take immediate concrete action to prevent the carp from bypassing the barrier. There are three actions that they can take this fall:
- An emergency physical barrier (like sandbags) must be built between the Des Plaines and the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal to ensure the live carp cannot flood into the CSSC past the electrical barrier.
- An additional barrier must be installed to stop the carp from migrating upstream into the Des Plaines River.
- Critical sections of the I&M Canal must be filled in, so that carp cannot swim into the CSSC during floods.
If flooding occurs and the Corps has failed to take the above actions, all locks upstream of the electric barrier must be closed until we are certain that carp have not been carried into the Great Lakes watershed along with the floodwaters. After the Corps takes these emergency actions, it must quickly turn to its work to permanently separate the Great Lakes and Mississippi River to stop this emergency from becoming an epidemic.
Take Action! Please make four calls:
Contact your member of Congress and two senators. Ask them to tell the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to take the immediate emergency actions above to stop Asian carp from getting into the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal during a flood. Call 202-224-3121 and ask to be connected to your representative's and senators' offices.
Contact Ms. Jo Ellen Darcy, Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civil Works). Tell her that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers must take immediate emergency action to ensure Asian carp cannot get into the Great Lakes during a flood. Assistant Secretary Darcy can be reached at (703) 697-8986 or by writing 108 Army Pentagon, Room 3E446, Washington, DC 20310-0108.
For more information about invasive species in the Great Lakes, see http://www.greatlakes.org/asiancarp, or contact Joel Brammeier at jbrammeier@greatlakes.org.
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