GLIN==> Shelve the politicking and do what's necessary to preserve the Great Lakes from a devastating Asian carp infestation: editorial

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Shelve the politicking and do what's necessary to preserve the Great Lakes from a devastating Asian carp infestation: editorial
By The Plain Dealer Editorial Board
February 22, 2010, 3:59AM
Stop the carping and stop the carp.
Since a single Asian carp was found in a commercial waterway that links the Mississippi River with Lake Michigan last December -- foreshadowing an apocalyptic threat to the Great Lakes -- a federal bureaucracy as tangled as a fishing line has descended upon the problem.
Everyone with a modicum of understanding of the impending catastrophe recommends immediately -- albeit temporarily -- shutting down the Chicago Sanitary and Shipping Canal locks.
That would nullify any further threat until the full range of options can be studied.
Unfortunately, those lacking understanding include the president of the United States. President Barack Obama seems more interested in protecting Chicago cronies than in safeguarding this unique ecosystem and its multibillion-dollar fishing and recreational industries. That's why, instead of definitive action, there has been: a White House summit and a congressional hearing.
There's also been the draft of a document that is a recipe for disaster.
The 46-page Asian Carp Control Strategy Framework, a product of the federal Environmental Protection Agency, the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, recommends a five-year study into the feasibility of permanently separating links to Lake Michigan -- a pointless exercise since by then the voracious and prolific bighead and silver carp will be well established in our most precious natural resource.
The draft also proposes that the Illinois Department of Natural Resources work with its congressional delegation "to identify certification procedures necessary for Asian carp to be declared suitable for use in US sponsored Humanitarian relief efforts."
Ship them to Haiti!
Instead of wasting the last three months on such ridiculous suggestions, the feds should have been taking action: Close the shipping locks, and work with Illinois to design a new infrastructure to move goods and people as well as address wastewater management and flood-control issues.
The ultimate goal, as Gov. Ted Strickland articulated in a recent letter to the U.S. EPA, is the permanent physical separation of Lake Michigan from the Chicago Area Waterways System.
That is the only solution to this looming ecological debacle.
(c) 2010 cleveland.com. All rights reserved.



Kristy Meyer, M.S.
Director of Agriculture & Clean Water Programs
Ohio Environmental Council
1207 Grandview Ave., Ste. 201
Columbus, OH 43212
Direct Phone: (614) 487-5842
OEC Phone: (614) 487-7506
Kristy at theOEC.org
Twitter.com/AgWaterKristy<http://www.twitter.com/AgWaterKristy>
Facebook/OhioEnvironmentalCouncil<http://www.facebook.com/pages/Columbus-OH/The-Ohio-Environmental-Council/18540061737?ref=ts>

There's water everywhere this spring! Join the OEC and partners at Vernal Pool Workshops<http;/www.theoec.org/VP2010.htm> on March 6 and April 17, and the Lake Erie Management Plan Public Forum<http://www.theoec.org/LaMP10.htm> on March 12-13.

Please think of the environment before you print this email.

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