Jan 6: According to a release from the Michigan Attorney General, late in the day on January 5, the U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court opposing Cox's efforts to protect the Lakes by closing the Chicago-area locks and waterways connecting carp-infested waters with the Lakes. Since filing his suit on December 21, 2009 [See WIMS 1/4/10], Cox has been joined by the states of Minnesota, New York, Ohio and Wisconsin and the Province of Ontario. The State of Indiana has also expressed support for Michigan's action. Additionally, a number of environmental organizations have also supported the legal action to close the locks. Asian carp are an aggressive invasive species that could quickly devastate Great Lakes fish populations and the hundreds of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in economic activity which they support.
In his release Cox said he is "extremely disappointed by President Obama's choice to protect the narrow interests of his home state of Illinois while ignoring the pleas of Michigan and at least four other Great Lakes states" which have asked the United States Supreme Court for the immediate closure of Chicago-area waterways containing Asian carp. Cox called on Obama to immediately meet with him, Governor Jennifer Granholm, and others to hear first-hand the concerns Great Lakes states have due to the immediate threat posed by the aggressive invasive species.
Cox said, "I am extremely disappointed that President Obama sided with his home state while ignoring the concerns of the millions of families in Michigan, New York, Ohio, Wisconsin and Minnesota, whose jobs and way of life depends on protecting the Great Lakes from this economic and ecological disaster. I am hopeful, however, that by sitting down with us and listening to our concerns, he will come to recognize the urgency of protecting the jobs and ecology of the entire Great Lakes region."
Interestingly, the Obama Administration's Senior Advisor for Great Lakes issues, Cameron Davis, is the former head of the Alliance for the Great Lakes which also stongly supports the Supreme Court legal action initiated by the Michigan Attorney General. In June of 2009 U.S. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson appointed the long-time Great Lakes advocate Davis to be EPA's Senior Advisor for Great Lakes issues. However, the newly announced Alliance President Joel Brammeier said in a release on December 21, "The Alliance applauds Michigan's move to protect the lakes. Knowing there are carp less than seven miles from Lake Michigan, we have to take every precaution until we know those canals are free from carp and the barrier is not being breached."
So what does EPA's Senior Great Lakes Advisor have to say. The Great Lakes Town Hall (GLTH) recently interviewed Cameron Davis (CD) and published the interview on January 3, 2010, The following is the portion of the interview dealing with the Asian Carp issue.
(GLTH) - After the waters past the electric barrier tested positive for Asian carp DNA, why weren't the locks immediately closed as a precautionary measure until it could be determined if any carp had made it as far as Lake Michigan?
(CD) - Thanks for asking the question because the call for lock closure has been really charged and it's important to have an honest discussion about it. First, the locks are old and leaky. Closing them would provide a false sense of security. But second and more important, the call for lock closure is largely based on eDNA sampling results. We're learning that eDNA is a good early warning system, but it shouldn't be relied on exclusively for making major management decisions. When rotenone (a piscicide) was applied near the Corps of Engineers' electric fences, where lots of Asian carp could have been, we only found one Asian carp. When the Illinois DNR contracted with commercial fishermen -- these people's livelihoods are based on capturing Asian carp among others -- they didn't find a single Asian carp out of hundreds and hundreds of other fish captured. eDNA is a new technology. It's an important color in the palate that helps us paint a picture of what's going out there in a waterway, but it's one color.
(GLTH) - What does the Asian carp emergency teach or tell you about the federal and state response to ecosystem threats, both urgent and especially for the long-term?
(CD) - The agencies have an enormous sense of urgency about keeping carp out of the Great Lakes. The December Rapid Response action to keep carp out of the Chicago Sanitary Ship Canal while the Corps of Engineers' electric fence IIA was down was a textbook team effort by local, state, provincial, federal and bi-national agencies that worked. Our goal was to keep carp out of the Great Lakes and in December we won. But that was just one battle. The agencies need to hit the gas on longer term, sustainable solutions.
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) which has also supported the states' Supreme Court lawsuit responded to the latest action of Illinois and the Federal government in a blog post saying, "We might be forced to wait 10 years for the Army Corps of Engineers to finish a study on permanent solutions to this mess, but it is inevitable that some sort of barrier will have to be put in place to re-establish the separation that existed between the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basin to prevent this dangerous invasive species, and the multitudes of other queued up to follow, from threatening 1/5 of the world’s fresh water. It seems to me that the threat should spur action on its own, but as I’ve noted repeatedly in this slow-motion disaster, the State and Obama administration should seize this moment as the biggest opportunity that this region has seen in a century to fix real problems and begin the real work of improving the environment, economy and commercial transportation infrastructure of the Great Lakes."
Access the release from Michigan AG Cox (click here). Access the release from the Alliance (click here). Access the complete GLTH interview with Davis (click here). Access the lengthy NRDC blog post (click here).
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Dear Sirs,
Another problem that the southern fish farmers pose is the interstate transportation of fish using natural waters.
As bills like H.R.3669 address the problems of invasive species by private pet owners, it should be noted that fish farmers have had meetings with officials of the Federal government discussing their belief that waters of fish being brought into our country need to be considered for problems. As industry will play an important role in helping keep our waters clean, I sent to the vice president a disk containing a published copy of meeting minutes, a member of the Federal government had in 2006 with southern fish farmers, along with information on chemical use by these same farmers. Problems including interstate transportation with no federal endorsement, disease and invasive are discussed from a fish rearing business perspective for both bait fish an ornamentals. Now as these problems are discussed from their point of view, it should be noted that not all of their plans are environmentally sound. They seem to want to be able to move their fish through state lines without considering the quality of water used or what is added, while using an international set of standards regarding testing of the fish only. They also suggest that the state of Maine, who has not allowed importation of bait fish, is a problem that should be remedy and that the state of Arkansas (largest fish producer in nation) should be considered a disease free zone, along with many other questionable practices. Some of these fish farmers will deliver fish through fed –ex by air to all states. They even have a bait fish that has a patent pending that will live in salt or fresh water, which they will deliver this way. As the Presidents ocean and great lakes initiative is aware of this problem and how states such as mine did not bother to address water as problematic so long as the fish had an inspection in the last year in another state out of their jurisdiction. Fish transported and sold in the US often change hands many different times with many different water changes and chemicals often are used without regard for state laws during transportation and can be brought into my state from anywhere in the country without worrying about disposal. I have seen the transport water and it is often milky, suds, full of scales, invasive (crabs, pollywogs, etc.) with the possibility of pathogens and virus. In the mid 1990’s as the fish being delivered from Arkansas to me were dying of disease, it was not uncommon to see bait fish, ornamentals, food fish on the same truck being spread out from tank to tank as space was freed up, as I know I often added more water to take them to their next delivery. This water and the fish are often unloaded from tanks on trucks through pipes to tanks fed by natural water where the overflow is back into natural waters. I am in the industry and do believe that mandatory safe procedures can solve this. As high level administration officials that now negotiate trade with China involving water movement through ballast systems, did not recognize virus and pathogens in natural waters for fish transport when they were involved as a senator from NY, despite knowing that our state university helping formulate policy about baitfish was busy studying virus in water, with a grant, I doubt whether they will care about the dangers of ballast water or the carbon footprints associated with bring foreign products into our country in order to keep our large retail employers shelves filled with foreign manufactured products.
Sincerely,
Don Mitchel
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