Understanding Government

Here is somewhat alarming news involving Asian carp, which threaten to disrupt the ecology of Lake Michigan. “With no fanfare,” reports Dan Egan of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers posted on its website this week news that nine water samples taken above the barrier in recent weeks have tested positive for the giant, jumping fish.” Seven of these samples were taken from Chicago’s Lake Calumet, which lies just a few miles away from Lake Michigan. What was discovered was not fish themselves but strands of DNA. Perhaps it got there, reports Egan, “through sewage discharges or contaminated bilge water from barges.”

Asian Carp

The White House, seven federal agencies, and eight Great Lakes states have agreed upon an updated plan to get Asian carp out of Chicago area waterways that lead to Lake Michigan, reports the Northwest Indiana Times’ Bowdeya Tweh.

The effort calls for continuing to search for Asian carp DNA in water samples past an electric barrier system, using electronic transmitters to track movement of certain fish and using commercial fishermen to reduce the Asian carp population downstream of the barrier system. Underwater cameras and hydroguns to kill fish in certain areas also were discussed as technologies that could be employed.

There’s not much new here. While seven federal agencies are part of the effort, the real legwork comes from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (more…)

After more than a year of feuding as well as a pending lawsuit, Illinois and Michigan may have reached a breakthrough on the invasive Asian carp, which threatens Midwest rivers and the Great Lakes. Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin and Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow have proposed legislation that would force federal engineers to devise a hydrological separation in the next 18 months between the Great Lakes and Mississippi River, the Associated Press reports. (more…)

Dan Egan of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that the Asian carp battle between Illinois and five Great Lakes states will “rage on” despite the fact that Mike Cox — the Michigan attorney general who initiated a lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago — is now out of office. (more…)

Two weeks ago, a federal judge decided that Illinois would not have to close a lock that connects Chicago waterways to Lake Michigan, kind of literally opening the door for Asian carp to invade the Great Lakes ecosystem. The ruling’s effect was to put the issue into the hands of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is studying how to block the carp, who have no known natural predators, from swimming into Lake Michigan. However, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Dan Egan reports that the Army Corps may already be dropping the ball. (more…)