Fish Fence Failure: How the Guard, Corps, and EPA are failing to protect the Great Lakes

People are worried about the giant Asian carp.

Big fish. Big deal, right?

Yeah. But, it's the fact that these suckers have been busting people's bones that has people worried; not the bigger threat that this invasive species poses to the Great Lakes ecosystem. These fish can get to be close to 100 pounds and pop out of the water any time they are frightened.

Which happens most of the time when they encounter a boat.

So boaters and water skiers spent the summer dodging Rottweiler-sized fish rocketing after them.

And not everyone can dodge... The papers have been littered with stories of busted bones, including this one from a teenager who woke up in a hospital after his jaw was shattered by one of these fish. Check out the first minute of this documentary for an "America's Funniest Home Video" type of view of the dangers involved (particularly the poor guy at the :31 second mark and the insane action at the 1:00 minute mark):

As if the threat of bodily damage wasn't enough, there is the threat of annihilating the entire Great Lakes ecosystem should the fish get past a jury-rigged gate from the Sanitary Ship Canal south of Chicago and into Lake Michigan. The carp are voracious predators and quickie reproducers that make short work of the native fish. They are less than 15 miles away from the lake.

Now, you would think that protecting 1/5 of the world's fresh water and billions of dollars worth of industry would spark bold action...

Dan Egan's excellent article in last Sunday's Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel is a galling expose that sounds all-to-familiar of late. The article raises worrisome questions about the work of the Army Corps of Engineers, EPA, and Coast Guard to stave off this threat. He finds significant issues about the transparency of these agencies, bungled siting, dubious engineering, and even more dubious boondoggle spending around the fish fence that, after 2 ½ years and $9 million dollars, is not protecting anything but shipping interests.

I strongly suggest you read the article---good journalism is not dead---but here are some of the lowlights:

The fish are within a two-day swim of Lake Michigan. But federal officials won't permanently activate the barrier until they are convinced the electrified water is safe for the barge operators who make their living pushing things such as coal, sand and gravel along the rail-straight oversized ditch built a century ago to carry away Chicago's toilet water.

They can't say when that will happen.

They can't even say for sure if that will happen.

What they can say is that they need to do more testing, but their work and decisions are being done far from the light of public scrutiny.

...The fish have migrated to within 15 miles of the new barrier. The only defense for the Great Lakes for the past several years has been a smaller, weaker "experimental" barrier that has a history of failing and that biologists believe is not strong enough to repel juvenile carp, which, because of their size, are less affected by electrified water.

One question posed by shippers is whether the electrified water could be fatal to any of their crew members if they fell into the water. Fair question (though it seems odd that the charge is not strong enough to repel fish, but could knock out a sailor) but not much of an answer:

According to documents the Journal Sentinel obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, the U.S. Navy's Experimental Diving Unit was hired to do that job. It took $100,000 and more than a year of computer modeling and analysis, but the Navy has finally reached a conclusion: Similar to falling into icy water, you might be incapacitated and die. Or, you might not.

The Coast Guard is still apparently reviewing the study; it has not been released to the general public.

So, what genius decided to place the fence in such a precarious spot?

...To make matters worse, the barrier was built just upstream from a coal-fired power plant. To keep sparks from flying in the dusty coal loading zone, the Army Corps spent $330,000 two years ago installing a set of energy-sucking metal mats on the canal bottom to keep the electrical current from bleeding into the loading area.

...But there is a big problem with the canal site the Army Corps picked - the Des Plaines River runs parallel to it, only yards away in some places. The Des Plaines flows into the Asian carp-infested Illinois River, and biologists concede that it too will one day fill with the fish. The problem is the canal and the Des Plaines have a history of merging when big floods hit.

And, whose interest is being promoted in this process?

A letter the Journal Sentinel obtained suggests that the Coast Guard has a history of being more interested in maintaining business-as-usual on the canal than protecting the future of a system of lakes that provide drinking water for 40 million people and sustain a commercial and recreational fishery valued at more than $7 billion a year.

After a spark arced from a barge traveling across the experimental barrier, the Coast Guard sent a letter in January 2005 asking the Corps to shut it down - leaving the door wide open to the carp - while safety tests were conducted.

...The Journal Sentinel asked the Coast Guard for a copy of the barge industry's letter that was submitted as part of a public comment process on the proposal to temporarily turn on the new barrier. The Coast Guard declined, saying: "if (the barge operators) would like it released they will provide a copy if requested."

Even members of the panel that helped conceive and design the barrier say they feel left out of some of the safety discussions the Corps and Coast Guard are having with the barge industry as the matter drags out.

"It does seem to me that a lot of discussions have been going on between the Coast Guard, the Corps and the river carriers without the involvement of the rest of the panel," says Moy. "Maybe that's appropriate. Maybe it's not."

The article doesn't pull any punches at the conclusion either:

Now Congress is pumping tens of millions of dollars into the new system. But until it's allowed to operate, it isn't a barrier to anything.

It's just a bunch of spent money, even if the public is being led to believe the problem is solved.

"If there was an investigation by the GAO (Government Accountability Office)," says Dan Thomas, president of the Great Lakes Sport Fishing Council, "heads would roll."

Yikes.

The article raises some frightening questions about what we can expect from the executive branch of our government these days.

And as the Great Lakes are threatened by invasive species that have completely transformed their ecosystem already, a bill that passed the house looks all the more ominous. The bill would put complete control of the fight against invasive species in the hands of the US Coast Guard. We think that this fight is too big for a single agency. And this article certainly casts further doubt on whether the Guard is up to the task on their own---after all, they can't seem to close a gate...

Photo by FAQUE from Flickr