Skyway Yacht Works - Asian Carp

Amendmaent 24 - Camp Amendment to Federal Budget

At end of bill insert the following text:

None of the funds made available by this Act may be used for opening the locks at the Thomas J. O'Brien Lock and Dam or the Chicago River controlling Works except in the event of flooding or as needed to protect public safety.

VOTE- Recorded Vote on Thursday FEB 17, 2011 Yes : 136 No : 293

Stakeholder conference call to discuss upcoming construction and the waterway restrictions required to support that work on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal

Stakeholders interested in discussing upcoming construction and the waterway restrictions required to support that work on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal are invited to participate in a conference call from 11:15 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. CDT, Monday, Sept. 27 with representatives from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Illinois Department of Natural Resources and U.S. Coast Guard.

WHO: Representatives of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Illinois Department of Natural Resources and U.S. Coast Guard

WHY: To discuss October work and the waterway restrictions required to support that work on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal (See full list of restrictions below)

WHEN: 11:15 CDT, Monday, Sept. 27

CALL-IN INFORMATION: 866-299-3188, Code 1702309

SUMMARY OF WATERWAY RESTRICTIONS
During the following dates and times CDT, vessel traffic will not be allowed to pass:
* 04-11 Oct - Traffic prohibited 0700-1700 each day. (USACE installation of 2 "parasitic structures")
* 13-15 Oct - Traffic prohibited 0700-1700 each day. (This restriction will only occur if the work scheduled for 04-11 Oct isn't completed.)
* 19 Oct - 1600-2400 hours (IDNR fish sampling)
* 20 Oct - 0001-1200 hours, then a four hour opening for traffic, closed again 1600-2400 hrs (IDNR fish sampling)
* 21 Oct - 0001-1000 (IDNR fish sampling)
* 03-05 Nov - Traffic prohibited 0700-1700 each day. (3rd and final parasitic structure installation.)

Asian Carp Risk May Maroon Chicago Boaters as Lake Michigan Lockout Looms

Chicago’s seasonal ritual of boat parades may be scuttled as five states ask a judge to head off an invasion of Asian carp by blocking access to Lake Michigan.

Boats come out of winter storage along the Chicago and Calumet rivers each spring and motor through locks into the lake, where they harbor until autumn. The city schedules lifts of movable bridges twice a week to accommodate tall masts.

Michigan and four other states will argue at a Sept. 7 hearing that one way to shut out the carp is to close the locks. Boaters in the third-largest U.S. city say that would strand them in dry dock or, for sailboats, cost thousands of dollars to have vessels transported overland.

“Closing off the locks just seems like cutting off a lifeblood for a lot of boaters in this town,” said Glennon Schaffner, 45, an architect and retail executive who keeps his 30-foot Chris-Craft powerboat, the Maru II, at the Goose Island Boatyard on the north branch of the Chicago River, about 3 miles from the lake.

Boatyard owners are concerned that customers will abandon their facilities close to the city for those far enough away that they wouldn’t be affected by carp-fighting measures.

“We are very nervous about the situation,” said Rick Haislip, general manager of the Goose Island Boatyard, which stores as many as 400 powerboats. “Boat owners are worried if they pull boats out this fall, they will not be able to get back into the lake next spring.”

Hogging the Plankton

Asian carp, which grow as big as 100 pounds (45 kilograms), escaped into the Mississippi River after being imported to cleanse fish ponds and sewage lagoons. Their diet includes the plankton that native species need to survive, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio and Pennsylvania contend that the carp threaten the region’s $7.09 billion sport and commercial fishing industry. U.S. District Judge Robert Dow in Chicago will hear evidence in the lawsuit filed in July by attorneys general for those states, charging that Illinois and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers haven’t done enough to keep the fish out of the lakes.

“We have here a carp highway,” Robert Reichel, an attorney for Michigan, said in an appearance before Dow last month. The Great Lakes and Mississippi are connected by the Illinois River and by the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal and the Cal-Sag Channel. The man-made channels were dug about a century ago to flush the city’s waste away from its Lake Michigan water supply and into the Mississippi.

Closing the locks is one of several proposals put before Dow. The states’ other suggestions include additional netting and screens as well as poisoning the fish with the insecticide Rotenone.

Electric Fences

The Army Corps already has installed two electric- current barriers along the bottom of the canal to prevent the fish from passing, and a third is under construction.

“Closing the locks would certainly be the swiftest and most powerful solution, but certainly not the only step that can be taken to protect the Great Lakes,” said Joy Yearout, a spokeswoman for Michigan Attorney General Michael Cox.

Opponents of separating the lake and rivers include tour-boat operators and industrial and agricultural interests that rely upon the region’s channels to transport cargo and crops.

“Plaintiffs do an artful job of creating panic,” the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, the agency that controls the area’s waterways, wrote in its filing with Dow.

DNA Evidence

Traces of carp DNA have been found in Calumet Harbor, a cove southeast of downtown that is part of the lake.

“Once in the lake, it would be very difficult to control” the fish, according to the states’ complaint.

While they recognize the threat that the invasive fish pose, Chicago boaters question the lawsuit’s reasoning.

“There is no way to prevent the carp from getting into Lake Michigan,” said Jeff Pierce, founder of Windy City Yacht Brokerage LLC, who owns a 52-foot Jefferson Monticello powerboat, the Broke-R. “Even if they close the locks, spring flooding will allow them to get into the lake.”

Pierce could find some unexpected support on a cabin cruiser docked this week at the city’s Monroe Harbor: the Parrent family of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Craig, Danielle and their three children were on the first week of a yearlong voyage from Lake Michigan, down the Mississippi into the Gulf of Mexico, up the East Coast on the Atlantic Ocean, and through the locks of the St. Lawrence Seaway.

“Of course we don’t want to see the Asian carp up in our waters,” said Danielle Parrent, a 35-year-old homemaker. “But I imagine if I were from Chicago, I would hope there would be a different way -- that they’d get creative and find a new way instead of closing the lock system.”

The case is State of Michigan v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 10cv4457, Northern District of Illinois (Chicago).

To contact the reporters on this story: Andrew M. Harris in Chicago at aharris16@bloomberg.net Flynn McRoberts in Chicago at fmcroberts1@bloomberg.net

9/17/10

"Periodic vessel traffic restrictions scheduled on Chicago Sanitary & Ship Canal during October, November Closures facilitate U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' construction project"

There will be temporary waterway restrictions for vessel traffic on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal Oct. 4-11, with the possible need for additional temporary restrictions Oct. 13-15. These vessel traffic restriction are necessary to facilitate U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' work on electrical Barrier IIB. The temporary restrictions on Oct. 13-15, which follow the announcement of the Oct. 4-11 restrictions, are only necessary if the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is unable to complete all work planned during the period of Oct. 4-11.

In addition to these planned restrictions, phase three of the Army Corps of Engineers' Barrier IIB construction project will necessitate additional temporary closures Nov. 3-5.

These temporary restrictions to vessel traffic will allow the Army Corps of Engineers to safely install underwater structures designed to limit the spread of electric current in the waterway from the barriers that are in place to prevent the passage of Asian carp into the Great Lakes. During these times, the Army Corps' electric barriers I and IIA will continue to operate.

To support these actions, the U.S. Coast Guard will activate a safety zone on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. Vessel traffic will not be permitted to transit through the zone during periods of work. However, every effort will be made to allow vessels to transit when work is no longer taking place.

Details are subject to change, but the ACRCC recognizes the importance of providing maximum advance notice to waterway users.

WHERE: Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal in the vicinity of the barrier, likely from mile 296.1 (approx 450' south of the Romeo Road Bridge) to mile 296.7 (aerial pipeline located approx 0.51 miles northeast of Romeo Road bridge).

WHEN: From 7 a.m.-5 p.m. on each of the following days: Oct. 4-11, Oct. 13-15 and Nov. 3-5.

Questions on the waterway closure can be directed to U.S. Coast Guard Sector Lake Michigan at (414-747-7182) or to U.S. Coast Guard Marine Safety Unit Chicago at (630) 986-2155. Questions on the construction project can be directed to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at (312) 846-5330

Quinn: Catch Asian carp, send them to China
July 13, 2010 12:28 PM | No Comments | UPDATED STORY
Gov. Pat Quinn today signed an agreement with China to export as much as 30 million pounds of Asian carp a year from the Illinois River, a move aimed at reducing the population of the invasive species downstate.

Flanked by state lawmakers and business leaders from Illinois and China, Quinn said of the Asian carp crisis, "if you can't beat 'em, eat 'em."
Illinois is investing $2 million to upgrade the facilities at Big River Fisheries in downstate Pearl, a fish processing plant that already ships millions of pounds of Asian carp to China and other countries each year.

By expanding their capabilities, Quinn said, Big River hopes to process and ship 30 million pounds of Asian carp to upscale restaurants in China by 2011. At full capacity, Big River could process up to 50 million pounds of fish, said Ross Harano, director of international sales for Big River.

The investment will also bring as much as 180 new jobs to the riverside communities of Pearl and Pittsfield, where Big River's production facilities are located.

"We believe the people of China who like to eat Asian carp will find this is the best anywhere on Earth," Quinn said.

Indeed, the plan is to market Asian carp caught in Illinois as wild grown fish to upscale restaurants in China, Harano said. That's the only way to offset the added costs of catching the fish locally and shipping it overseas.

"Just like people pay a premium for Angus beef, we believe people will pay a premium for this," Harano said. "We're marketing it as "Wild Mississippi River Fish'. It's all in how you market it over there."

--Joel Hood

Terry Doyle
Calumet River Fleeting Inc.
10048 S Indianapolis Avenue
Chicago, IL 60617
773.721.1600/773.721.0281

April 19,2010

Illinois SG Mike Scodro just called to say that the Carp case has been taken off today’s docket and moved to the conference for next Friday Apr. 23. We were speculating that this may indicate that the Court is writing an opinion that it plans to issue along with an order dismissing the petition to reopen. We may see an order on the 26th, but if the court isn’t ready it will keep kicking the case over to later conferences until it is. I once saw that happen over eight successive conferences, so the timing is up in the air.

We were also speculating that if EPA continues to take no action on closing the locks, Michigan’s AG will be under pressure to file suit in district court if his Supreme Court case is dismissed. My reading is that Scodro expects a new suit to be filed if the Supreme Court dismisses

Tim Bishop
Mayer Brown LLP
71 S. Wacker Drive
Chicago, IL 60606
312-701-7829

Study puts cost of closing locks to keep out carp at $4.7B

April 7, 2010 10:47 AM | No Comments An economic impact study commissioned the by the Illinois Chamber of Commerce projects the cost of closing Chicago-area navigational locks to shipping could be as much as $4.7 billion over the next 20 years, an estimate far exceeding the one produced by two business consultants hired by Michigan's attorney general in February.

The study, led by DePaul University economist Joseph Schwieterman, anticipates an economic loss to the Chicago region of about $531 million annually over the first seven years and a long-term net loss of about $4.7 billion over 20 years.
 "It is the chamber's hope that this study will bring some well-reasoned perspective to a debate that has been fueled by rhetoric from the state of Michigan," Jim Farrell, executive director of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce's Infrastructure Council, said in a statement released Wednesday.

"The Schwieterman study shows, through well-reasoned economics, that closing these locks will have a devastating effect on our local economy, resulting in the loss of potentially hundreds of area jobs and hurting a range of industries and services."

The study commissioned by Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox and led by a Wayne State business professor estimated an annual loss of only about $70 million a year to the Chicago region and downplayed concerns about the long-term impact to boating and shipping. A 15-year analysis of barge and shipping data showed a 50 percent drop in barge and shipping traffic since 1994, a number shipping industry officials disputed.

Cox filed a lawsuit with the U.S. Supreme Court in December to try and force closure of two navigational shipping locks on the Chicago River and Calumet-Sag Channel to stop the advancement of Asian carp into Lake Michigan. The Supreme Court, which has twice rejected Cox's plea for an immediate closure, is expected to consider the legal merits of the lawsuit in conference on April 16.

 --Joel Hood

Court asked to throw out Asian carp request

The three defendants at the center of the Asian carp dispute have asked the Supreme Court to toss out Michigan's request to re-open a near 90-year-old case that could force closure of shipping locks in Chicago-area waterways.

In court records filed late Monday, the U.S. Solicitor General's office (filing on behalf of the Army Corps of Engineers), the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Great Chicago, and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan uniformly argue that the 1922 case Michigan seeks to re-open was solely intended to restrict Illinois' ability to divert water from Lake Michigan after the construction of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal.

The Asian carp issue, Madigan says, is about keeping invasive species from moving between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River. And Illinois has taken many steps over the years to limit the lakes' exposure, she said.

"For Illinois' part, the state has used, and continues to use, its limited legal authority over a navigable waterway to stop Asian carp from reaching Lake Michigan," Madigan wrote. "And (until filing this suit) Michigan and other Great Lakes states had consistently applauded Illinois' efforts in this regard ..."

The shipping locks, one at the mouth of the Chicago River and the other in the Calumet-Sag Channel, are closed to restrict the flow of water out of Lake Michigan. But the locks are opened periodically to allow ships and boats to pass through and in some cases to alleviate rising flood water.

Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox sued Illinois, the water district, and the Army Corps in December to force closure of these two shipping locks. Cox, in a suit since joined by six other Great Lakes states, argues that permanently closing the shipping locks is the only way to prevent Asian carp and other invasive species from entering Lake Michigan and possibly destroying the region's estimated $7 billion commercial and recreational fishing industries.

The suit was filed with the Supreme Court because the high court mediates disputes between states. But since the Army Corps has the day-to-day operation of the locks, and the water district opens them during flooding, Madigan and the Solicitor General argue that Supreme Court is not the proper venue for this fight because the state of Illinois does not have the authority to open and close the locks.

The Supreme Court is expected to rule on that matter on April 16, when the justices meet in conference. If they decide not to take up the case, Michigan must decide whether to file a new suit involving the water district and the federal government in federal court.

Cox twice asked the Supreme Court for an injunction that would have immediately closed the locks while a long-term solution on Asian carp removal could be worked out. The court rejected both requests.

-- Joel Hood

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