3 state attorneys favor walling off Great Lakes to stop carp - WNEM TV 5
Attorneys general from three states say a $275 million federal plan for keeping Asian carp from migrating into the Great Lakes is too pricey and rejects the most effective solution.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is recommending technologies such as electric barriers and water cannons at the Brandon Road Lock and Dam near Joliet, Illinois, which stands between the carp-infested Illinois River and Lake Michigan.
Attorneys general Bill Schuette of Michigan, Lori Swanson of Minnesota and Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania say a better way is replacing the lock gates with a concrete wall that would divide the Great Lakes and Mississippi River watersheds. That would cost only about $5.9 million.
They say the Corps plan favors the needs of shipping companies over those of the Great Lakes fishing industry.
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WASHINGTON D.C. (AP) — Scientists have witnessed the first modern case of what they call “river piracy” and they blame global warming.
Most of the water gushing from a glacier in northwest Canada last year suddenly switched from one river to another.
That changed the Slims River from a deep, raging river to something so shallow that it barely was above a scientist’s high top sneakers at midstream. It also means the water from the glacier ends up in the Pacific Ocean instead of the Arctic’s Bering Sea.
Study chief author Dan Shugar of the University of Washington Tacoma says it seems to happen in about one day last May. A canyon formed at the end of the glacier, rerouting the water to another river.
The study is published in Monday’s journal Nature Geoscience.