Cherry urges swift action on Asian carp

Lt. Gov. John Cherry, who has served in the past as the chairman of the Great Lakes Commission, issued a statement Friday urging fast and effective action to prevent the Asian carp from reaching the Great Lakes. The statement said, in part:

“Michigan has supported plans to protect the Great Lakes during a period when the existing barrier may be deactivated for maintenance, however, these emergency response efforts fall short of the long term solution needed,” Cherry said. “We know the damage Asian Carp would cause if they reached the Great Lakes, and we must take every available action to prevent that from happening.”

Lt. Governor Cherry called for the following actions:

* completion of work on Barrier 2B;
* full power operation of Barrier 2A (currently operating at half power);
* installation of a physical barrier to prevent carp, detected in the nearby Des Plaines River, from entering the Chicago Sanitary and Shipping Canal during periods of flooding; and
* making the CSSC a priority as the Corps of Engineers studies a range of options and technologies to prevent the transfer of aquatic invasive species.

Barrier 2A is an electrical barrier that releases electric current into the CSSC to shock the carp and keep them from getting any closer to Lake Michigan. The voltage it puts out was doubled in August when a new study showed that the Asian carp was much closer — within ten miles — to getting into the lake than previously believed.

Since then, many environmental groups have demanded more drastic action to keep the invasive species out of the Great Lakes, where the carp could devastate the ecosystem and force many other species into extinction. The U.S. Congress finally passed the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative at the end of October, which allocated more funds to fight the Asian carp problem.