Expert: Cost of closing locks greatly exaggerated

Two experts from the state of Michigan, hired by Attorney General Mike Cox’s office to study the question of how much it would cost economically to close the locks between Lake Michigan and the Chicago Sanitary and Shipping Canal to help prevent Asian carp from reaching the Great Lakes, have concluded that claims of the economic impact of such a closing have been vastly exaggerated by Chicago-area politicians and merchants with a vested interest in keeping the locks open. AP reports:

Costs of transporting and handling cargo on Chicago waterways would rise by about $70 million a year if two locks were shut as Michigan and neighboring states want, said Wayne State University business professor John Taylor and James Roach, a transportation consultant.

That’s a tiny fraction of the city’s $521 billion economy and much less damage than the $7 billion fishing industry could suffer from a carp invasion, Taylor and Roach said in a telephone conference. They were hired by the Michigan attorney general’s office to conduct the study and said they’d been paid less than $50,000.

They acknowledged closure would have “negative impacts” on Chicago barge and tour boat operators but said freight could be transferred to rail cars, trucks or pipelines without substantial new costs or traffic jams.

“The claims that even a temporary closure will devastate the local economy and Illinois’ role in the regional, national and global economy cannot reasonably be supported,” Roach said.

Taylor and Roach are acting as expert witnesses also conclude that having to offload the cargo for a short distance to get around the locks, then putting it back on a barge, would create more jobs than the barge industry would lose.