Michigan Sues Illinios Over Carp

It is now official, Michigan is suing to force the closure of the O’Brien Lock and Dam in the Calumet-Sag Channel, the Chicago Controlling Works in the Illinois River and the permanent seperation of the artificial link between the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes Basins.

“The actions of Illinois and federal authorities have not been enough to assure us the Lakes are safe,” Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox said yesterday in a news release. “That’s why the waterways must be shut down until we are assured that Michigan will be protected.”

Noah Hall, previously of NWF, thinks Michigan has a strong case because it is reopening a 100 year-old case from when Chicago first reversed the flow of the Chicago River to direct its sewage toward the Mississippi. Hall told Greenwire that the court is likely to weigh the economic consequences of closing the locks for the shipping industry against the impact the Carp will make on the economy of the region if they enter the lakes.

How the court rules on the preliminary injunction will provide some idea as to how they will view the larger case. The preliminary injunction ruling is likely to come in late December or early January.

Congress and Legislators Demand the Asian Carp be Stopped

We learned weeks ago that the DNA of Asian Carp was present beyond the electric barrier in the Chicago Sanitary and Shipping Canal but from Congress and the White House we only heard silence. Then last week closed with a resounding bipartisan cry from Congress to the region’s state houses for the Asian Carp to be stopped – no matter what it takes.

Fifty members of the US Congress and numerous State Lawmakers released letters calling for the locks to be closed until we know more; for the voltage on the electronic barrier to be turned up; and for consideration of plans for a permanent separation of the Mississippi River and Great Lakes Basins.

The previous week, the Administration announced a $13 million emergency grant from the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative to help stop the voracious carp from entering the lakes’ ecosystems. HOW fully supports all these efforts and we are grateful that Congress broke their silence with such a strong message. Below are the names of the Members of Congress that signed the letter.

In the Senate, Carl Levin (Mich.), George Voinovich(OH), Debbie Stabenow (Mich.), Russ Feingold (Wisc.), Sherrod Brown (OH), Robert Casey (PA), Herb Kohl (Wisc.), Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), Al Franken (Minn.), Charles Schumer (NY), Kirstin Gillibrand (NY) and Ronald Burris (Ill.) have signed the letter. In the House, Reps. Vern Ehlers (Mich.), Louis Slaughter (NY), John Dingell (Mich.), Mark Kirk (Ill.), Nancy Kaptur (OH), Sandy Levin (Mich.), Brian Higgins (NY), July Biggert (Ill.), Gwen Moore (Wisc.), Mike Quigley (Ill.), Gary Peters (Mich.), Betty Sutton (OH), John Conyers (Mich.), Fred Upton (Mich.), Candice Miller (Mich.), Tim Brown (Ind.), Pete Visclosky (Ind.), Mike Rogers (Mich.), Dave Camp (Mich.), Tammy Baldwin (Wisc.), Dale Kildee (Mich.), Steve LaTourette (OH), Kathy Dahlkemper (PA), Janice Schakowsky (Ill.), Mark Schauer (Mich.), Thad McCotter (Mich.), Pete Hoekstra (Mich.), Tim Ryan (OH), Bart Stupak (Mich.), Robert Latta (OH), Charles Wilson (OH), Joe Donnelly (Ind.), Tom Petri (Wisc.), Steve Kagan (Wisc.), James Sensenbrenner (Wisc.), Ron Kind (Wisc.), Carolyn Kilpatrick (Mich.), Paul Ryan (Wisc.)and Louis Gutierrez (Ill.).

In another letter, Senate Majority Leader Dick Durban (Ill.) wrote to the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, the US Coast Guard, the EPA and the Fish and Wildlife Service urging them to make every effort to prevent the carp from getting into the lakes.

“At this point, the situation calls for a long-term, comprehensive Asian carp eradication plan to guide federal efforts. I encourage you to work with your fellow agencies to establish and convey to Congress such a plan as soon as practicable,” Sen. Durban wrote.

Thank you, to all who have taken on this issue as it is of the greatest urgency and it can not be sidelined by healthcare, the holidays or anything else. You can bet that the carp won’t be tempted by such red herrings.

US House Expected to Pass Jobs Bill Tonight: Promising News for Great Lakes Water Infrastructure

Tonight is the night that the US House intends to put people to work modernizing this nation’s water infrastructure. The jobs bill that is expected to pass tonight provides $1 billion for clean water and $1 billion for drinking water giving Great Lakes states an additional $400 million to update our sewers this year.

Healing Our Waters signed onto a letter that urged the House to set aside some funding for green infrastructure projects and efforts to institute water efficiency. The House has done so, setting aside 20 percent of the funding for such projects. The House is also waiving the cost share requirements which should allow localities to jump start projects. Anyone using the funds has to have working projects within 8 months or the funding will be relocated. That means jobs on the state priority list will get funds first.

Some Interesting Holiday Reading Coming Your Way: GLRI All The Way

After all those public meetings and after reading through all our public comments, the EPA has just released the final draft of their plan for implementing the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative from 2010 to 2014. They are asking for comments through January 8, 2010.

The Plan provides information about how the government plans to use the GLRI to address specific basin wide issues such as invasive species as well as local issues. The final plan will be released in February with the President’s new budget.

As invasive species, Asian Carp were always going get some fiscal attention from the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative funding, and now EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, has announced that $13 million will go directly to trying to stop the carp from entering via the Des Plaines River and for continued DNA testing in the Chicago Sanitary and Shipping Canal.

On another, but similar note, the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative’s Interagency Funding Guide has been updated. It provides one-stop-shopping for applicants interested in applying for over $250 million in grants and project agreements available through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. These grants and project agreements are intended to jump-start achievement of the Initiative’s long term goals: safely eating the fish and swimming at our beaches, assuring safe drinking water, and providing a healthy ecosystem for fish and wildlife. The Interagency Funding Guide also includes status information on offerings which are open (offerings from EPA and Fish and Wildlife) and those which have closed (offerings from NOAA and through Sustain Our Great Lakes).

Feds Invest In Stopping Asian Carp

As invasive species, Asian Carp were always going get some fiscal attention from the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative funding, and now EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, has announced that $13 million will go directly to trying to stop the carp from entering via the Des Plaines River and for continued DNA testing in the Chicago Sanitary and Shipping Canal.

Sen. Carl Levin and the Great Lakes Task Force have been working feverishly over the past couple weeks to ensure that federal agencies had enough money to try and stop the Asian Carp. They expect to circulate a letter late this week calling for the closure of the O’Brian locks and a permanent separation of the Mississippi River Basin from the Great Lakes Basin.

The Great Lakes Echo Takes On the Power Industry

In a provocative series about the Environmental Protection Agencies attempt to rectify years of lax regulation of the power industry, the Great Lakes Echo brings home some very salient points about what is going into our waterways. To read the first of the series, click here.

Rumors of Abuse of GLRI Funds Already Circulating

The Great Lakes haven’t seen one dollar of the $475 million Great Lakes Restoration Initiative money approved by Congress this Fall, but already rumors are flying around the region that the money will be used to shore up state and local budgets.
The Mudpuppy reports that some in the environmental community are concerned that the GLRI will help states fill in budget gaps instead of pay for much needed restoration projects, but we hope that Healing Our Waters Co-Chair, Andy Buchsbaum put those fears to rest.

“I think that there is such a national focus on the spending of this money, that agencies know that they would use it to fill budget gaps at their own peril,” Buchsbaum, told Jeff Kart. Buchsbaum then explained that much of the money is targeted toward specific projects and that would make it difficult for any agency to use the money to fill in for gaps.

Besides, we’ll be keeping a very close eye on the funding, not to mention our member organizations as well.

Great Lakes Day 2010 – February 23-24 – Washington, DC – Registration is now open!

Time for Action!

With your help, the effort to restore the Great Lakes has made significant progress in the past year, which is why it is more important now than ever to attend Great Lakes Day, February 23-24 in Washington, D.C.!

In 2009 Great Lakes advocates helped secure huge victories for the Great Lakes, including an investment of over $1 billion to repair aging sewers and restore habitat in the economic recovery package and an historic $475 million for the new Great Lakes Restoration Initiative aimed at restoring habitat, cleaning up toxic pollution and confronting invasive species.

These accomplishments are significant. But our work is not done. We must make sure that decision-makers in Washington, D.C., continue to follow through on Great Lakes restoration promises. Your presence at Great Lakes Day 2010 will help us to do just that.

This February 23 – 24, over 100 conservationists will descend on Capitol Hill to urge lawmakers to support Great Lakes restoration and economic recovery as part of the Healing Our Waters®-Great Lakes Coalition’s Great Lakes Day 2010.

We invite you to join us, to meet with your elected officials, share your successes and play a role in directing Great Lakes restoration dollars to where they will do the most good, so that our nation’s investment in Great Lakes restoration continues to benefit the lakes, and the millions of people who depend on them for their jobs, drinking water and way of life.

At Great Lakes Day, you will be briefed on critical issues facing the Great Lakes, attend training sessions to become a more effective advocate, and urge members of congress to support Great Lakes restoration. Your participation is vital in showing Congress and the Obama Administration that with their continued support the Great Lakes can be restored.

Hotel accommodations and scholarships are available. To learn more about the HOW Coalition’s Great Lakes Day 2010 and to register online, visit: http://www.healthylakes.org/2010-great-lakes-day-registration.

Take advantage of this opportunity to influence the future of our Great Lakes. Please feel free to pass along this message to other Great Lakes supporters who also may be interested in attending Great Lakes Day February 23-24 in Washington, D.C.

The Time for Action is now! Join us in Washington in February.

Some Great Lakes Congressmen Call for Locks to Close & Permanent Separation of Basins; Others May Follow

The Great Lakes Task Force has been circulating a letter on Capitol Hill urging immediate action to stop the Asian Carp from entering the Great Lakes. They join Michigan’s Governor in calling for the locks to be closed and consideration of creating a permanent hydrological separation the Great Lakes and the Canal.

The letter to the Assistant Secretary of the Army, Jo-Ellen Darcy, US Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen, Environmental Protection Agency Director Lisa Jackson and US Fish and Wildlife Service Director Sam Hamilton expresses great distress. The Congressmen ask them to consider closing the O’Brien and Chicago Locks if there is “reasonable likelihood that Asian carp are above the barrier,” they urge consideration of the Alliance for the Great Lakes and HOW’s recommendation that the basins be separated permanently and they also suggest implementing the recommendations of the rapid response team, continuing the use of piscicides and increasing the voltage of the electric barrier.

So far, the only open opposition to closing the locks and separating the basins has come from the American Waterways Operators who run the barges full of coal, heating oil and such to the Greater Chicago Area. In a letter last July to the US Transportation Department, the trade group asserts their rights to use the Chicago Sanitary and Shipping Canal and requests delays in turning the electric barrier’s voltage up until it is thoroughly studied. You can bet they are against closing the locks and a permanent separation of the basins. We still don’t know how much this industry contributes to the economy of the region but it will have to be lots of dollars to pay for the cost of letting Asian Carp into the Lakes and destroying a $7 billion sport fishing and recreational economy.

A number of Great Lakes lawmakers have already signed onto the letter but the deadline has been extended to Dec. 17 to garner as many signatures as possible. In the Senate, Carl Levin (Mich.), George Voinovich(OH), Debbie Stabenow (Mich.), Russ Feingold (Wisc.), Sherrod Brown (OH), Robert Casey (PA) and Ronald Burris (Ill.) have signed the letter. In the House, Reps. Vern Ehlers (Mich.), Louis Slaughter (NY), John Dingell (Mich.), Mark Kirk (Ill.), Nancy Kaptur (OH), Sandy Levin (Mich.), Brian Higgins (NY), July Biggert (Ill.), Gwen Moore (Wisc.), Mike Quigley (Ill.), Gary Peters (Mich.), Betty Sutton (OH), John Conyers (Mich.), Fred Upton (Mich.), Candice Miller (Mich.), Tim Brown (Ind.), Pete Visclosky (Ind.), Mike Rogers (Mich.) and Dave Camp (Mich.).

With such a needed, urgent message it is imperative that we get this out there with as many names as we can so if you don’t see your Congressmen’s name here please call the Capitol Switchboard 202-224-3121 and ask your Senator or Representative to sign on by calling Joy Mulinex in Senator Carl Levin’s office.

Great Lakes Thanks, Rep. Norm Dicks

There would be no Great Lakes Restoration Initiative – no $475 million – if it weren’t for a democrat from Washington State: Rep. Norm Dicks. As Chair of the Interior Subcommittee on Appropriations, Rep. Dicks was one of the stars that aligned bringing restoration dollars to the Great Lakes for 2010.

Rep. Dicks has the Puget Sound in his district and knows very well the problems plaguing this great water – many of the same problems our Great Lakes are facing – and he believes it is time to do something about it. At a press conference announcing the launch of a Great Waters Coalition committed to restoring America’s waters including the Great Lakes, Rep. Dicks said, “We need to do this…I pledge my support and commitment to making your efforts successful.”

At the same event, Malia Hale, Director of National Restoration and Water Resources Campaigns for the National Wildlife Federation, thanked Rep. Dicks saying, “It would have been easy for you to focus just on Puget Sound but you haven’t. You’ve focused on all these great waters and we are really appreciative of that.”

And so is the Healing Our Waters Coalition, Rep. Dicks, we thank you for your help in getting the $475 million for restoring our Great Lakes and we look forward to continuing to work with you until these lakes are clean and healthy once more.