Articles
Biggest debate: How to stop them
Amidst an industrialized area 25 miles southwest of Chicago, where the city’s striking skyline is replaced by smokestacks, a row of unassuming buildings house man’s only existing defense against Asian carp.
Inside the boxy, steel-sided structures, a handful of Army Corps of Engineers personnel tend to the electronic and mechanical equipment that keep the Electric Dispersal Barriers up and running.
An electrical hum emanates from refrigerator-size computers in the control room, giving the sense that touching any bit of metal READ MORE
No News and No Movement Is Good News in Asian Carp Debate
It’s become a modern day marvel here in Chicago. Every year now, for almost five decades, the city has dyed the Chicago River Irish green to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. Seeing the green river wind through the cityscape during mid-March is a local custom that city residents and tourists have grown to know and love here in the Windy City. President Obama even took his hometown tradition with him to Washington — turning the waters green in the fountain on READ MORE
Obama’s carp hunter makes rounds in quest for support, funding
The man appointed by President Obama last fall to lead U.S. efforts to halt the movement of an exotic fish into the Great Lakes doesn’t like his media nickname, “Asian carp czar.”
John Goss — the first presidential appointee to lead a U.S. war against an invasive species — prefers his official White House title, “Asian carp director.” Far from wielding the power of a “czar,” Goss is working with a shrinking budget and the legendarily slow-moving Army Corps of READ MORE
Setback in fight against invasive Asian carp
Should an artificial waterway in Chicago be closed to block two highly destructive fish from entering Lake Michigan and then the other four Great Lakes?
Supreme Court rejects emergency carp measures
The U.S. Supreme Court refused Monday to order emergency measures that might prevent Asian carp from reaching the Great Lakes, despite a warning that the exotic fish pose a “dire threat” to the region’s environment and economy.
Michigan and four neighboring states wanted the Army Corps of Engineers to install nets in two Chicago-area rivers and to expedite a study of permanent steps to head off an invasion by bighead and silver carp, which have advanced up the Mississippi River READ MORE
Separation of Watersheds Far From Only Solution
The troublesome Asian carp just will not go away, and unfortunately the many parties working toward a solution to this ongoing problem cannot seem to agree on the best path forward.
Some simply dismiss the Asian carp and do so at great risk. Many support exploration of alternative barriers, control methods and educational tools to address the species’ presence. Yet a third group continues to push for closure of the Chicago locks and permanent separation of the Great Lakes from READ MORE
Interview for PBS Chicago with Gideon Bluestein
Chicago Tonight interview for PBS Chicago with Gideon Bluestein, Illinois Chamber of Commerce. To watch, click here.
Cheapest plan to hold back Asian carp carries $3B price tag
A privately funded study to be released Tuesday outlines three ways the Chicago waterways could be closed off from the Great Lakes to keep invasive species, such as Asian carp, from moving between them.
The cheapest solution would cost taxpayers more than $3 billion and would take at least a decade to complete.
The study, which cost $2 million and was funded by several foundations, says separating the two watersheds would create jobs and could end up being cheaper than READ MORE
Getting It Right in the Gopher State
When it comes to the Asian carp debate, a long-running problem in the Great Lakes region is a laser-like focus on Chicago and its waterways. While attention is certainly due, it cannot come at the cost of ignoring all the other potential pathways and introduction methods in various states where Asian carp could find their way into the Great Lakes ecosystem.
Agencies and lawmakers in Illinois and Indiana continue to lead the way in keeping a broader perspective on the READ MORE
Risk Uncertain, Economic Costs Clear in Debate Over Asian Carp
Last week, a federal court in Chicago heard testimony from dozens of experts ranging from biologists to economists in an attempt to discern whether the continued operation of the Chicago area locks represents a “public nuisance” to our neighbors in the Great Lakes region. While we’ll have to wait weeks for the judge’s ruling on the legal questions at hand, scientific and economic testimony painted a clear picture – lock closure is expensive and the benefits are, at best, unknown; READ MORE
