Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine reiterated his desire for tougher action to stop destructive Asian carp from reaching the Great Lakes on Thursday, telling the Army Corps of Engineers it should close the Brandon Road lock near Joliet, Ill.
Mr. DeWine made the recommendation in comments submitted to the Corps about its plan to prevent Asian carp and other exotic species from migrating into Lake Michigan via the Chicago-area shipping and sanitary canal, which artificially connects the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River basin.
Mr. DeWine is a candidate for the Republican nomination for governor in 2018.
While the Corps has tentatively selected a plan that uses electrical fences, noise, and water jets to keep out invasive species, Mr. DeWine and others believe that doesn’t go far enough. In June, his office notes, there were reports of a silver Asian carp found nine miles from Lake Michigan, beyond electric barriers.
The attorney general said the Corps “should implement the lock closure alternative, which will be the most effective, safest, cheapest to construct, and quickest to complete. The urgent need for action cannot be overstated.”
The Chicago-area decision affects Ohio because Lake Erie is the epicenter of the Great Lakes region’s $7 billion fishery, valued at more than all commercial and recreational fishing in U.S. waters along the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and the Gulf of Mexico.
More fish are spawned and caught in Lake Erie than the other four Great Lakes combined. Researchers have said Ohio’s tourism and recreation industries would greatly suffer if Asian carp found their way to western Lake Erie.
Mr. DeWine also encouraged the Corps to continue developing plans for a multibillion-dollar, complete hydrologic separation of the Mississippi River and Great Lakes basins to block the spread of Asian carp.
In late November, several members of Congress, including all four U.S. senators from Ohio and Michigan, urged the Corps to stay on schedule with the Brandon Road Lock & Dam Study.
In a letter, U.S. Sens. Rob Portman (R., Ohio) and Debbie Stabenow (D., Mich.), co-chairs of the Senate Great Lakes Task Force, told Acting Corps Assistant Secretary Ryan Fisher the Corps must meet the report’s targeted completion date in January, 2019.
Also signing the letter were U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D., Ohio), U.S. Sen. Gary Peters (D., Mich.), and senators from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, and New York who are members of that task force.
The Corps has said it is unlikely to act on measures recommended in a tentatively selected plan before 2025, a timeline that senators said was concerning.
The Corps agreed in 2015 to a 46-month timeline to complete the Brandon Road Study, and already has missed an important interim deadline for releasing information last January, according to senators.
Contact Tom Henry at thenry@theblade.com, 419-724-6079, or via Twitter @ecowriterohio.
First Published December 8, 2017, 5:36 a.m.
