New MI Attorney General Continues Asian Carp Legal Actions

Jan 13: Michigan's new Attorney General Bill Schuette announced he will renew and continue efforts to protect Michigan's environment and economy by continuing Michigan's lawsuit initiated by former Attorney General Mike Cox that is aimed at stopping the march of Asian carp into the Great Lakes. Schuette was joined by the Office of the Great Lakes Director Patty Birkholz and the Michigan United Conservation Clubs (MUCC). Schuette said, "Standing by and letting Asian carp invade the Great Lakes would be an unprecedented ecological and economic disaster. We must defend Michigan's unique environment and fight to keep Michigan jobs." 

    Schuette indicated that he met with leaders of Michigan's environmental and sportsmen's communities this week to form a united front in the fight to block Asian carp. These groups included MUCC, Trout Unlimited, Michigan Steelhead and Salmon Fishermen's Association, National Wildlife Federation, Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council, Nature Conservancy, and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Birkholz said, "The imminent invasion by Asian carp through the Chicago area waterways is one of the most significant threats ever to the Great Lakes. As a state, we must join with others and take all necessary actions to stop the invasion. The Office of the Great Lakes and others in the Department of Natural Resources and Environment stand ready to help any way possible."

    Schuette's suit calls for both long-term and immediate actions by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago. Schuette is asking the Court to force the Army Corps of Engineers to shorten their planning to create a permanent ecological barrier between the Mississippi and Great Lakes from five years to 18 months. This is vital to stopping not only the flow of invasive species into the Great Lakes, but to stop their movement down into the Mississippi basin.

 

    While the study is being completed, Schuette is asking for increased activity in a number of areas to stop the Asian carps' advance, including: Operating locks in a way that limits the movement of the fish; Installing other interim physical barriers to fish passage; Increased monitoring for evidence of the fish beyond current electrical barriers using the best available techniques, including environmental DNA (eDNA)testing; and Targeted poisoning and netting in Chicago-area waterways. 

    The repeated discovery of Asian carp eDNA beyond electrical barriers in Chicago, in addition to the discovery of a live carp beyond the barrier, brought together a coalition of five Great Lakes states in the suit, with Michigan being joined by Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio and Pennsylvania on July 19, 2010. The most recent district court action on the case occurred on January 7, 2011 in which the Court considered plans to schedule the ongoing suit.In addition, Michigan has filed an appeal of a December 2, 2010 ruling that denied Michigan's motion for a preliminary injunction that would put immediate remedies in place, such as closing locks and increasing monitoring, as the underlying case goes forward. Michigan's brief supporting its request for the preliminary injunction is due to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit by January 26, 2011.

 

    Access a release from the MI Attorney General (click here).

EPA Announces Upcoming GLRI Funding Opportunity

Jan 12: By the end of January, 2011, U.S. EPA expects to release a competitive announcement (Request For Applications,  or RFA) requesting the submission of grant applications for approximately $40 million in Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) funding. The amount of funding for the RFA is contingent on the availability of appropriations. Full applications will be due approximately 45 days after release of the announcement. EPA notes that at this time it does not expect to issue any other GLRI funding announcements in Fiscal Year 2011.

    Elements of the RFA are expected to have numerous benefits, including: Increase in on-the-ground/in-the-water action; Prioritize restoration of Beneficial Uses and Areas of Concern; Reduce duplication of effort by applicants; Allow projects to begin this field season; and Simplify the funding request and the submission process.

    Funding under the RFA will support work under four of the five Focus Areas of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Action Plan.
Applications for GLRI funding for Habitat and Wildlife Protection and Restoration in FY 2011, which is the focus area not in the RFA, must be made through other Federal agencies and opportunities, such as Sustain Our Great Lakes -- for which the deadline for submissions is February 14, 2011.

 

    Access an announcement from EPA with complete links to related information (click here). Access the GLRI website for more information and background (click here).

World's First Freshwater Wind Farm Slated For Lake Erie

Jan 7: In his last official act as governor, Ohio's outgoing Governor Ted Strickland signed an Option-to-Lease contract between the State of Ohio and the Lake Erie Energy Development Company (LEEDCo), a major step toward the construction of the world's first freshwater wind farm in Lake Erie.  The contract further positions Cleveland and the State of Ohio as a global leader in advanced energy industry job creation and in the production and distribution of renewable energy.
 
    The agreement between the State of Ohio, the Lake Erie Energy Development Company (LEEDCo), and Freshwater Wind I, LLC, was signed, on behalf of the State by, Governor Strickland, Attorney General Richard Cordray, and Ohio Department of Natural Resources Director Sean Logan. The legally binding contract gives LEEDCo and Freshwater Wind the exclusive right to pursue a submerged lands lease for a designated area in Ohio's portion of Lake Erie. If performance metrics are met within the timeline established in the contract, Ohio will be home to the first freshwater wind farm in the world.

 

    The area covered by the Option-to-Lease agreement consists of nine grid cells totaling approximately 5,706 acres and is located approximately six miles due north of the city of Lakewood (Lakewood Park area). Ohio's first option to lease Lake Erie submerged lands for production of wind generated electricity allows a pilot project to explore the potential of offshore wind in Lake Erie.  LEEDCo and Freshwater Wind expect to install five wind turbines at the proposed site beginning late 2012 in an initial project expected to produce approximately 20 megawatts of electric generating capacity. According to estimates by NorTech, the initial project is estimated to create and sustain more than 600 jobs.

 

    Access a release from Governor Strickland with more details (click here). Access the LEEDCo website for more information (click here). Access the Freshwater Wind, LLC website for more information (click here).

Peer-Reviewed Journal Recognizes eDNA Use In Carp Detection

Jan 5: A release from The Nature Conservancy indicates that the use of environmental DNA (eDNA) by scientists from the University of Notre Dame and The Nature Conservancy to detect invasive Asian carp in the Chicago-area waterway has been validated in Conservation Letters, a new flagship peer-reviewed journal published by the Society for Conservation Biology.

    Professor David Lodge, director of the University of Notre Dame's Environmental Change Initiative said, "When you are dealing with cutting-edge research like eDNA, a very important part of the process is getting your science peer-reviewed and published in a well-respected journal. Given all the attention that the Asian carp issue has received, our team is thrilled to reach this new and important stage in the process." Lindsay Chadderton, The Nature Conservancy's Director for Aquatic Invasive Species, and a co-author of the paper said, "Critics have questioned whether our research can be trusted, but now that our work has been thoroughly reviewed and published in a scientific journal, hopefully the debate can shift from questioning the science to focusing on policy and management solutions." 
 
    Last year, working with The Nature Conservancy under a cooperative agreement funded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the team of researchers used the eDNA technique to discover just how close highly invasive bighead and silver carp were getting to Lake Michigan. In particular, the scientists were trying to discover if the two species of Asian carp (bighead and silver) had made it past a pair of underwater electronic barriers designed to keep exotic invasive species from moving between the Great Lakes and Mississippi River watersheds. The team of researchers, which included scientists from The Nature Conservancy and Notre Dame, soon discovered genetic material from Asian carp in several sections of the Chicago-area waterway system. Many of the detection points suggested that Asian carp were much closer to Lake Michigan than authorities had previously believed. Some carp eDNA was found in Calumet Harbor, a near-shore area of Lake Michigan itself, many miles beyond the electronic underwater barrier.

 

   Access a release from The Nature Conservancy with more details and links to additional information (click here).

Great Lakes Enhanced Weather & Marine Forecast

Jan 3: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced that it is now using enhanced weather and marine forecast models for the Great Lakes that will extend forecasts from 36 hours to 60 hours into the future to better serve commercial and recreational mariners, the shipping industry, emergency responders, water resource managers and the private weather industry.

    The Great Lakes Operational Forecast System (GLOFS) of NOAA's National Ocean Service, which predict currents, water level and water temperature, is now running on NOAA's National Weather Service's powerful and reliable super computers. The super computers run around the clock, offering a more reliable computing framework to generate Great Lakes forecast models and ultimately producing more timely forecasts. The National Weather Service provides customers with wind and wave forecasts in addition to weather forecasts for the five Great Lakes. Bringing the National Ocean Service's forecasts under the same computing system provides the opportunity for customers to have access to Great Lakes predictions from a single source.

    Access a release from NOAA (click here). Access GLOFS nowcasts and forecasts online (click here).

2011 Framework Strategy & USACE Interbasin Study

Dec 16: The Obama Administration today announced a series of new measures to protect the Great Lakes from Asian carp, building on the unprecedented proactive plan to prevent this invasive species from developing self-sustaining populations in the Great Lakes that the Administration established in February 2010.

    The 2011 Asian Carp Control Strategy Framework adds 13 new initiatives to the comprehensive effort to combat Asian carp, including expanding eDNA testing capacity and developing cutting-edge biological controls and monitoring technology, among other measures. The original Framework, created in February 2010 and updated in May, established the Asian Carp Regional Coordinating Committee (ACRCC), consisting of state and municipal agencies, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. EPA, and the U.S. Coast Guard to synchronize the response to Asian carp.

    The original Asian Carp Control Strategy Framework included 32 Federally-funded initiatives, all of which have been completed or are underway. The 2011 Asian Carp Control Strategy Framework now includes 45 short- and long-term initiatives in an aggressive, multi-tiered strategy to combat Asian carp. New projects in the 2011 Framework include:

• Validation of eDNA as an effective tool for monitoring and tracking Asian Carp through analysis and refinement of the eDNA processes to determine the number and distribution of positive detections of Asian carp.
• Development of eDNA genetic markers to more accurately and efficiently detect Asian carp concentrations.
• Expansion the USFWS lab in LaCrosse, WI to increase capacity of eDNA testing in all of the Great Lakes.
• Development of alternate trap and net designs for Asian carp.
• Development of rapid genetic-based methods to detect Asian carp to allow for faster results than eDNA.
• Evaluation of the affect of removing Asian carp food sources by reducing phosphorus and nitrogen from waste water treatment plant discharges into the CAWS/Upper Illinois Watershed.
• Assessment of the impact of steel hulled barges on the electric barriers.
• Evaluation of a permanent separation between the Wabash-Maumee watersheds.

    In a related matter, the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), in consultation with other Federal agencies, Native American tribes, state agencies, local governments and non-governmental organizations, announced more meetings and public hearing opportunities as part of the Great Lakes and Mississippi River Interbasin Study (GLMRIS) pursuant to Section 3061(d) of Water Resources Development Act of 2007 [See WIMS 11/16/10]. GLMRIS is exploring options and technologies, collectively known as aquatic nuisance species (ANS) controls, that could be applied to prevent ANS transfer between the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basins through aquatic pathways.

 

    As part of the GLMRIS a series of NEPA public scoping meetings will be held in both basins during January and February 2011, along with the opportunity to submit comments online through March 31, 2011 [extended from previous 2/28/11]. Persons wishing to speak at the meetings need to"Register to Speak" which also can be done online. Two meetings are scheduled for Michigan: Traverse City, January 27; and Ann Arbor, February 3. Specific venues will be announced soon.

 

    Access the ACRCC website (click here). Access a release on the new 2011 Framework (click here). Access the complete 2011 Framework (click here). Access the GLMRIS website for complete information on the study (click here). Access complete information on the NEPA scoping meeting including registration, commenting, contacts, available materials and more (click here).

MI & States Appeal Asian Carp PI Denial

MI & States Appeal Asian Carp PI Denial - Dec 16: Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox announced his office has filed a notice of appeal from the first preliminary court ruling in his lawsuit to stop the advance of Asian carp into the Great Lakes. Attorneys general from Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio and Pennsylvania signed on to Michigan's notice, which was filed December 16, in Federal District Court in Chicago. The Great Lakes states are appealing a December 2, 2010 ruling that denied Michigan's motion for preliminary injunction (PI), which called for several immediate actions.  

    Cox said, "Although our suit continues to move forward, the urgent threat that Asian carp pose requires that we aggressively pursue this preliminary injunction. Until the federal government takes effective action, Michigan and our Great Lakes partners will take full advantage of every opportunity we have to ensure our livelihood is not destroyed by Asian carp."

    The notice of appeal filed today requests the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals review the district court ruling of December 2, 2010. In that ruling, Federal District Court Judge Robert M. Dow, Jr. denied Michigan's motion for preliminary injunction, which called for the temporary closure of the O'Brien and Chicago Locks and blocking other pathways in the Chicago water system, except as needed to protect public health and safety, among other actions. Cox indicated that the need for the preliminary injunction, which would stop Asian carp as the rest of the suit is considered, was made clear by the recent capture of a live bighead carp beyond any current barriers. Meanwhile, the preliminary ruling did not halt consideration of the merits of the Great Lakes states' lawsuit. A status conference scheduled for January 7, 2011 will determine future proceedings at the district court level. 

 

    Attorneys general from Wisconsin, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Ohio first joined Cox in filing his lawsuit on July 19, 2010, due to what he said was "the Army Corps' dismal record of inaction in confronting Asian carp." The lawsuit calls for the Corps to use all available efforts to block Asian carp passage in the waterways linked to Lake Michigan, subject to exceptions to prevent flooding, allow access for emergency responders and any other action necessary to prevent serious threats to public health and safety. 

 

    The Permanent Prevention of Asian Carp Act and the CARP Act, both sponsored by U.S Representative Dave Camp (R-MI), still await action by Congress [See WIMS 6/30/10]. The legislation mirrors Michigan's motion for preliminary injunction, calling for temporary closure of the locks to protect the Great Lakes and requiring the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to expedite a study to determine the best way to permanently separate the Mississippi River Basin from Lake Michigan. Earlier this year, Cox petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene and address the threat of Asian carp. The Supreme Court declined the take up the case but did not rule on the merits of the legal claims by Michigan and other Great Lakes states.

 

    Access a release from the Attorney General (click here).