Understanding Government

Asian carp gets all the press, but there are 40 other species swimming in the Chicago River that could spring an unwanted invasion into the Great Lakes. So says a new report by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, as relayed by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel’s Dan Egan. At issue is whether the Army Corps should build an electric barrier to separate the Chicago River from Lake Michigan. Many environmentalists say the barrier should be built now, but the Army Corp is still in studying/evaluation mode.

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.”

Darryl Fears reports on a realistic approach to climate change in a great Washington Post snapshot of the area around Hampton Roads, Virginia.  Including the cities of Norfolk and Virginia Beach, this part of the country is particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels because the land itself is sinking due to long-term geological processes. In a few generations, Virginia Beach could be left without a beach, and the Norfolk Naval Station could be more underwater than even the Navy likes to be. (more…)

Six years and thousands of miles away from the poorly designed flood walls and levees whose post-Katrina failure inundated New Orleans, environmental groups in California have filed a federal lawsuit to prevent what they contend is an unproven, costly and potentially damaging flood protection strategy ordered by US Army Corps of Engineers.

The Corps, under scrutiny after a natural disaster became a man-made catastrophe, decreed in 2007 that local levee districts would in the future lose guarantees of federal aid and loans unless all trees and shrubs were removed from levees under its nominal jurisdiction around the nation. (more…)

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…)