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| Silver carp in Fox River, USF&WS |
Asian carp are an invasive species that voraciously eat the food native fish on which native fish depend. They infest the Illinois River and its tributaries
[photo] and are moving towards the Great Lakes. The species that can grow to 100 lbs was originally imported to control algae in southern fish farms and waste treatment plants.
They escaped into the Mississippi River basin.[video] A century ago, Chicago rerouted its sewage into the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal to avoid dumping it into Lake Michigan. The canal has proved to be a link between the infested drainage and the lower Great Lakes. Since 2010, 5.5 million pounds of carp have been pulled from the Illinois River, which researchers say has the highest concentration of silver carp on the planet. A recent study found that the invasive fish could thrive in parts of Lake Michigan, posing a threat to the $7 billion fishing industry. Conservationists were alarmed when an adult,
8 pound silver carp was caught past electric barriers in the Calumet River just nine miles from the Lake. Five states unsuccessfully sued the Corp to sever the link between the lake and the Mississippi Basin.
The regime suppressed a report from the Army Corps of Engineers for months in 2017 that contains a plan to stop the invasion at the Brandon Roads Dam on the Des Plaines River near Joliet, IL. The report was supposed to be released February 28th but sixteen Repugnants funded by the barge industry lobby group, American Waterways Operators, asked the White House to block the plan until a new head of the Corps is confirmed. No one has been nominated for the position. It was finally released after a vote on a bill to force its release by the Senate Appropriations Committee. The barge operators are concerned that new barriers will "disrupt commercial activity". The lobby gave $108,500 to House representatives that voted in June against an appropriations bill to fund preliminary work on new barriers. That bill will now go to the Senate, where the industry PAC has invested $50,500. The plan was original estimated to cost $275 million, but is now projected to cost as much as $832 million
