PENTWATER — If all goes well, Pentwater fishers will have a new and accessible location from which to cast their lines next summer.

Also, visiting folks in sailboats still will have a place to tie up their dinghies.

The Pentwater Village Council recently approved a grant agreement for construction of a fishing pier at the end of Fourth Street which should be completed by July.

The council unanimously approved the resolution accepting a grant from the Great Lakes Fishery Trust, which is providing the bulk of funds for the project.

But councilman Jim Alfredson expressed concern that the agreement specifies a design, and signage, that prohibit boats from tying up at the structure.

The current Fourth Street dock is known as the “dinghy dock” and is used by visiting boaters who anchor in Pentwater Lake.

Village manager Jim Miller explained that there will be a second dock, south of the fishing pier, that will provide space for boats to tie up. Miller provided a preliminary sketch showing the relative location of the two structures.

Miller said the GLFT grant is for $117,000 and requires an additional $18,000 from the village. Additional funding will be provided by the Downtown Development Authority and the Pentwater Lake Association.

Dan Egan, Millwaukee Journal Sentinel

Even as pressure is mounting on the federal government to turn on its new electric Asian carp barrier on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, a conservation group is pushing for more dramatic action.

A report released today by the Alliance for the Great Lakes asks the federal government to explore replumbing the river systems just below Lake Michigan to once again separate the waters of the Great Lakes from the Mississippi River basin.

The two systems were not connected until Chicagoans linked them by canal more than a century ago.

That project reversed the flow of the Chicago River to flush the city’s sewage away from Lake Michigan, the city’s source of drinking water, and into the Mississippi River basin. A secondary benefit was that it created a shipping lane between the two grand drainages.

Now, armed with data from a $110,000 study funded by the Great Lakes Fishery Commission and Great Lakes Fishery Trust, the Alliance for the Great Lakes says it’s time to look at severing that link.

It could be a massive undertaking, and it would mean disrupting barge traffic and likely require significant sewage treatment upgrades in Chicago, because at least some of the city’s treated waste would begin to flow back into Lake Michigan.

“The Great Lakes and the Mississippi River are at risk because of a connection that’s nothing natural,” says Joel Brammeier, vice president of the Alliance for the Great Lakes, and lead author of the report that took more than two years to complete. “Fifteen miles of water and an experimental electric barrier are all that’s standing between the Great Lakes and Asian carp. We’ve got to get serious about a real solution.”

An existing “experimental” electric barrier has been placed in the canal to keep the Asian carp from advancing into Lake Michigan.

It is designed to keep the water – and boats – flowing on the canal while stopping the northward migration of the fish.

A new, stronger two-barrier system is considered the best chance at the moment for stopping the carp’s advance, but the Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Coast Guard have been struggling with safety issues relating to boating on the canal since the first of the two new barriers was completed in 2006.

It has yet to allow the new barrier to be turned on permanently, but even if the corps does eventually decide to allow it to operate at full strength, it isn’t a permanent solution.

Short-term efforts risky

“State and federal governments have invested wisely for the short term by developing barriers that are effective against current invaders,” states the report. “But even if the barriers operate as designed, they will not last forever, nor will they ever achieve guaranteed 100 percent effectiveness. With the passage of time, through human error, an accident, or a natural disaster – the effectiveness of the barriers will be compromised.”

Scientists say the only way to keep Asian carp or any other unwanted critters or bugs from spilling on their own between the two systems is to physically sever that link.

The costs of unhitching the two basins could be huge, but Brammeier points out that there are likely even bigger costs to exposing the Great Lakes fishery to invasive species such as the Asian carp. The carp can grow to 100 pounds and have already squeezed aside native fish in the stretches of river they have infested in the Mississippi basin. The fish could also wreak havoc on other forms of tourism and recreation, such as jet skiing, because of their dangerous habit of porpoising out of the water toward boaters.

“We’re talking about a 5 billion dollar sport fishing industry, and it remains to be seen how many tons of cargo will be affected,” Brammeier said.

Asian carp aren’t the only species threatening to jump between the drainage basins. The fish-killing VHS virus, for example, has been found in Illinois’ Lake Michigan waters, and if it works its way down the Mississippi River, it could ravage the southern fish farming industry.

Zebra mussels made their way into the middle of the continent via the Sanitary and Ship Canal, as did the round goby, an invasive fish that feasts on native species’ eggs.

Separation has backing

The idea of a separation might be radical, but it isn’t new. In 2003 Chicago Mayor Richard Daley convened a summit of regional scientists who recommended the same thing.

The study released this morning is a first look at barge and recreational traffic patterns on the waterways below Lake Michigan and where a logical place would be to install a dam or some other separating structure or structures.

The Sanitary and Ship Canal eventually fans into five waterways that connect to Lake Michigan. The new study suggests that there are strategic areas to install barriers that would allow some sewage to continue to flow down the canal toward the Mississippi and still allow for much of the barge traffic in the Chicago area.

“What we’re learning is that you don’t have to shut the canal down to commerce,” said Marc Gaden, spokesman for the fishery commission.

Still, the separation would result in some significant cargo disruptions and also mean an end for recreational boats and barges freely sailing from Lake Michigan into the Mississippi and Gulf of Mexico.

“The technology is out there to get these boats over a land barrier, there is (equipment) out there to lift massive boats over land in about the time it takes to go through a lock,” Brammeier said, noting that boats in the area already have to transit locks.

Brammeier noted that his study is just a first look at the issue, and that many more detailed analyses need to be undertaken.

For Immediate Release
November 10, 2008

Contacts:
Mark Coscarelli (Great Lakes Fishery Trust) 517-371-7461
Marc Gaden (Great Lakes Fishery Commission) 734-417-8012

Study outlines steps to help stop the spread of invasive species—like Asian carp—through Chicago-area canals

LANSING AND ANN ARBOR, MI—The Great Lakes Fishery Commission and the Great Lakes Fishery Trust today announced the release of a three-year study by the Alliance for the Great Lakes that takes a first look at stopping the transfer of invasive species between the Great Lakes and Mississippi River systems. While an electrical dispersal barrier currently provides some control on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship canal, long term solutions are needed to further reduce the risk of invasions. The report, co-funded by the Fishery Trust and the Fishery Commission, is the first systematic look at commercial and recreational traffic on the waterway and at potential, long term solutions to prevent biological transfers. The study was funded pursuant to a recommendation from an Invasive Species Summit meeting convened in 2003 by Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley that called for a project to examine long-term solutions to reduce the risk of invasive species in the waterway. The complete report produced by the Alliance for the Great Lakes is available on the Alliance’s website at www.greatlakes.org/invasivespecies/gateways.

The Chicago Waterway System, a series of canals built in the 1800s that famously “reversed the flow” of the Chicago River to improve sanitation, artificially connects the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basins. The waterway serves as a transportation corridor and provides access for recreational boaters. The connection, however, also is a conduit for invasive species, with zebra mussels and round gobies moving from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi basin and with Asian carp currently threatening to enter the Great Lakes from the Mississippi. With increasing global trade, the threat of invasive species is only expected to grow.

“Invasive species continue to pose one of the biggest threats to the future of the Great Lakes and the Chicago waterway is a direct link for species to enter Lake Michigan,” said Rebecca Humphries, Chair of the Great Lakes Fishery Trust and Director of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. “This study helps establish a course to address this important link,” she said.

“With the benefit of hindsight the Great Lakes and Mississippi systems should never have been connected in so direct a way,” added Great Lakes Fishery Commission chair Michael Hansen, a professor at the University of Wisconsin—Stevens Point. “Our task now is to find permanent and effective solutions to the threat that this waterway poses. The commission calls upon the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to consider the Alliance’s recommendations and launch a full-scale study, with the ultimate goal of achieving long term separation between the two basins.”

The Great Lakes Fishery Trust is an innovative funding program created in 1996 as part of a settlement with Consumers Energy and the Detroit Edison Company for fish losses caused by the operation of the Ludington Pumped Storage Plant on Lake Michigan. The trust provides funding to educational institutions, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies to improve and protect the Great Lakes fishery.

The Great Lakes Fishery Commission was established by the United States and Canada through the 1954 Convention on Great Lakes Fisheries. The commission supports fisheries research, controls the invasive sea lamprey, and facilitates the implementation of provincial, state, and tribal fisheries management agreements. For more information about the commission, visit www.glfc.int.