GLIN==> States and cities initiative to modernize Chicago area waterway system on the fast track

For immediate release: January 11, 2011

 

$2 Million Funding Goal Met, Lead Contractor Selected for Study Initiative
to Modernize the Chicago Waterway System and Protect the Great Lakes from
Asian Carp 

http://www.glc.org/announce/11/01waterway.html 

 

 

For Information, Contact:

Tim Eder, Executive Director, Great Lakes Commission

734-971-9135 or 734-604-7281 (cell); teder at glc.org 

 

OR

 

David Ullrich, Executive Director, Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities
Initiative

312-201-4516 or 312-480-6501 (cell); david.ullrich at glslcities.org 

 

 

For Immediate Release: January 11, 2011. A fast-tracked effort by Great
Lakes states and cities to develop options for separating the Great Lakes
from the Mississippi River while improving transportation, water quality and
flood control is now underway after reaching a funding target of $2 million,
largely from private funders, and selection of an expert consulting team.

 

The project, Envisioning a Chicago Area Waterway System for the 21st
Century, www.glc.org/ans/chicagowaterway.html, is being undertaken by the
Great Lakes Commission representing states and provinces, and the Great
Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative, representing mayors. Its goal is
to identify engineering options for Chicago’s waterway system that will
prevent interbasin movement of aquatic invasive species such as Asian carp,
while also modernizing the system’s roles in commercial navigation,
recreational boating, flood and stormwater management, and water quality.

 

“We are intensively focused on completing the project by the end of 2011 and
presenting options for separation in January 2012,” said Tim Eder, executive
director of the Ann Arbor, Michigan-based Great Lakes Commission. “With our
full budget in hand and the hiring of a top-notch team of consultants, we
are on track.”

 

David Ullrich, executive director of the Cities Initiative, noted that the
project represents the most comprehensive look at the waterway system since
the reversal of the Chicago River away from Lake Michigan over a century
ago. “We have a unique opportunity to not only protect the Great Lakes and
Mississippi River from serious invaders, but improve quality of life and
economic well-being for the residents of greater Chicago and the Great Lakes
basin for many generations to come. This project is comprehensive because it
addresses all the vital functions of the Chicago waterway system.”

 

The $2 million in funding has been secured from six funders: the Frey
Foundation, the Great Lakes Fishery Trust, the Great Lakes Protection Fund,
the Joyce Foundation, the C.S. Mott Foundation, and the Wege Foundation. 

 

The Chicago office of HDR Engineering, Inc. of Chicago, (www.hdrinc.com/)
will be the lead consultant for the project. HDR assembled a national highly
qualified, multi-disciplinary technical team with expertise in hydrology and
hydraulics; environmental engineering; lock, dam and canal engineering;
ecology and fisheries biology; transportation planning and commercial
logistics; sanitary engineering; regional planning; and economics. HDR will
serve as the lead consultant for the project, with support from an array of
premier specialty firms that bring additional skills. HDR has more than
35years of experience in the Chicago area.

While Asian carp have been migrating up the Mississippi toward the Great
Lakes during the past two decades, urgency intensified in June 2010 when a
live Asian carp was caught in Lake Calumet above electronic barriers
installed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and just six miles from Lake
Michigan.

 

Both the Great Lakes Commission and the Cities Initiative have taken
positions favoring separation as the best approach to keep the invasive fish
from entering the Great Lakes and threatening businesses, tourism and a $7
billion sport fishery. The Chicago waterway project will evaluate the
economic, technical and ecological elements of separation, along with
associated costs, impacts and potential benefits of a re-engineered
hydrologic system.

 

The project is designed to support the work of the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers’ Great Lakes and Mississippi River Interbasin Study, but is
committed to produce findings on a more accelerated schedule: completion is
envisioned by the end of 2011. The project has been endorsed by U.S. Senator
Richard Durbin (D-IL), Illinois Governor Pat Quinn and Chicago Mayor Richard
M. Daley, among many other regional leaders. 

 

 

###

The Great Lakes Commission, chaired by James Tierney (NY), is an interstate
compact agency established under state and U.S. federal law and dedicated to
promoting a strong economy, healthy environment and high quality of life for
the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence region and its residents. The Commission
consists of governors' appointees, state legislators, and agency officials
from its eight member states. Associate membership for Ontario and Québec
was established through the signing of a "Declaration of Partnership." The
Commission maintains a formal Observer program involving U.S. and Canadian
federal agencies, tribal authorities, binational agencies and other regional
interests. The Commission offices are located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Learn
more at www.glc.org.

The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative is a U.S. and Canadian
coalition of over 70 mayors and other local officials representing over 13
million people that works actively with federal, state, tribal, first nation
and provincial governments and other stakeholders to advance the restoration
and promotion of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River basin. For more
information on the Cities Initiative, visit www.glslcities.org. 

 

 

Tim Eder, Executive Director

Great Lakes Commission

734-971-9135, ext. 101

teder at glc.org

http://www.glc.org/

http://www.great-lakes.net/

 

 
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