RE: NANFA-L-- President Bush, Electrical Barriers,and Asian Carps


Subject: RE: NANFA-L-- President Bush, Electrical Barriers,and Asian Carps
From: Hoover, Jan J ERDC-EL-MS (Jan.J.Hoover at erdc.usace.army.mil)
Date: Fri Oct 08 2004 - 14:16:41 CDT


Bush to OK funds to keep Asian carp out of Great Lakes
President expected to sign measure

Gannett News Service

WASHINGTON - President Bush could soon approve money to finish building an
electric fence in Illinois that would keep Asian carp out of the Great
Lakes, lawmakers said Thursday.

Fish farms in the South imported Asian carp to help clear plankton and
debris from water, but some escaped during floods. They grow as large as 50
pounds, breed quickly and already have overrun long stretches of the
Mississippi River.

They could wreck the $4 billion Great Lakes fishing industry if they get in,
wildlife groups warn.

"Scientists have predicted they would turn the Great Lakes into the Great
Carp Pond," said Jordan Lubetkin, spokesman for the National Wildlife
Federation in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Ohio Republican Sens. Mike DeWine and George Voinovich and Rep. David Hobson
put an extra $1.825 million in a 2005 District of Columbia spending bill to
enhance and finish the new electric fence on the Chicago Sanitary & Ship
Canal.

The canal links the Mississippi River to Lake Michigan and the rest of the
Great Lakes. Carp already have been found in the Mississippi a few miles
from the canal, Lubetkin said. The new fence would be about 30 miles west of
Lake Michigan.

Congress and Great Lakes states pooled $5 million to build the new fence
about 1,000 feet away from a temporary one that is deteriorating. But the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project an extra $1.825 million to complete the
job on the 160-foot-wide fence.

Now that money is on the way, the new fence could be built by April,
according to the Corps of Engineers. The fence would resemble two railroad
tracks about 200 feet apart along the bottom of the canal that would send
electrical current through the water.

Great Lakes lawmakers were worried that the new fence would be delayed
because the money was in a controversial energy bill that is stalled in
Congress. But DeWine, who is chairman of the Senate District of Columbia
appropriations subcommittee, helped transfer it to the faster moving
District spending bill.

The House and Senate passed the compromise spending bill with the electric
fence money Wednesday and sent it to the White House. President Bush is
expected to sign it into law within weeks, said Hobson's spokeswoman Sara
Perkins.

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: Fri Dec 31 2004 - 11:27:40 CST