Marketplace Today Blog

By Ryan Haggerty
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Officials at all levels of government must quickly formulate a plan — and be willing to close locks on Chicago’s canal system — to slow or prevent the advance of Asian carp into Lake Michigan, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Barrett said Monday.

“We are strongly urging the White House, we are strongly urging the [Environmental Protection Agency] to take whatever steps are necessary, including the closing of the Chicago sanitary canal if that is what’s required, to make sure that the Asian carp does not enter into Lake Michigan,” Barrett said. “This is a very, very serious problem.”

Milwaukee mayor Barrett, Cudahy Mayor Ryan McCue and Kenosha Mayor Keith Bosman spoke during a morning news conference at Discovery World on Milwaukee's lakefront, just hours before Monday afternoon’s Asian carp “summit” at the White House. Great Lakes governors will meet with Obama administration officials to strategize how to best deal with the invasive species.

Asian carp threaten to upend Lake Michigan’s ecosystem and damage the lake’s commercial and recreational fishing industries by disrupting the lake’s food chain.

Water tests for Asian carp DNA reveal the fish have breached an electric barrier on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal 20 miles downstream from Lake Michigan, and researchers believe a small population is likely now swimming in the lake.

Politicians beyond Illinois are now clamoring for emergency lock closures on the Chicago canal system to block the carp, which have been migrating north since they escaped their Arkansas containment ponds in the 1970s.

Barrett said he hopes Monday’s White House summit would help Illinois officials and representatives of other Great Lakes states reach a consensus on how to proceed.

“I think that everybody recognizes that this is a serious issue, and the question is what’s the appropriate remedy,” Barrett said. “I think it is very, very important that the governors, the White House and the EPA come up with a strategy to ensure that the carp do not enter the Great Lakes.”