Brandon Road lock dam USACE.jpg
Aerial view of Brandon Road Lock and Dam, Joliet, Ill., April 22, 2014.
(Courtesy | U.S. Army Corps of Engineers)
GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- Sen. Debbie Stabenow expressed support this week for an expensive but permanent long-term solution for keeping Asian carp out of the Great Lakes by severing a water connection with the Mississippi River basin in Illinois southwest of Chicago.
"I would" support hydrological separation of the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basins, Michigan's Democratic U.S. senator said during a stop in Grand Rapids to talk about threats to the lakes posed by oil pipelines and nuclear waste storage on the shores of Lake Huron.
"What we're trying to figure out is how to get the support to do it and exactly what should happen," she said.
In February, Stabenow and Rep. Candice Miller, R-Harrison Township, introduced the Defending Our Great Lakes Act in the U.S. House and Senate.
The bills direct the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to "take immediate action to prevent the upstream transfer of aquatic nuisance species from the Mississippi River basin to the Great Lakes basin" through a shipping lock in Joliet, Ill.
Because physically separating the Chicago Area Waterway System from the Great Lakes basin through construction of aquatic barriers is controversial and opposed by many in Illinois, Stabenow and others' focus has turned to installing short-term control measures at the Brandon Road lock and dam on the Des Plaines River.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is considering a new "flushing lock" at Brandon Road that would clean water of invasive species before a boat could pass through. Other proposed control measures include more electric barriers, Co2 bubble screens, underwater sound canons and pheromones.
Upstream of Brandon Road is an electronic barrier that's supposed to keep the fish contained, but environmental groups say repeated testing showing Asian carp genetic material upstream of the barrier is evidence the measure isn't enough.
The new lock was suggested in the multi-year Great Lakes-Mississippi River Interbasin Study (GLMRIS) released last year, which outlined eight possible ways to stop the spread of Asian carp, the most expensive being the $18.3 billion hydrologic separation option that's not popular in Illinois.
Last year, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Chicago dismissed a lawsuit brought by Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio and Pennsylvania against the U.S. Army Corp that sought permanent closure of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, the only navigable aquatic link between the two basins.
Stabenow said the people of Illinois see the Chicago waterway system as a crucial industrial and commercial transportation corridor.
"Hydrologic separation, in my opinion, is an irrational, costly and irreversible response to something that has been and continues to be successfully managed by federal, state and local agencies," Michael Borgstrom, president of Wendella Sightseeing, a Chicago tour boat company, told the Chicago Tribune last year.
"We're stymied because we can't get support, frankly, from Illinois or Chicago," Stabenow said. "Their senators and representatives won't support doing something."
Should the fish reach the Great Lakes, it's projected they would severely disrupt the native ecosystems and devastate the sport fishing industry.
"We're trying to get through that to create a way or process where they will support doing what needs to be done long-term," she said.
"There's just not the same sense of urgency. It's really very much 'this is a navigational system, it's all about commercial boats.'"
Garret Ellison covers business, environment, history and government for MLive/The Grand Rapids Press. Email him at gellison@mlive.com or follow on Twitter & Instagram