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Rep. Halvorson: Chicago lock closures would cost consumers Closing Chicago River not a ‘balanced, common sense approach’
(Above) U.S. Representative Debbie Halvorson (D-IL) at a news conference Monday morning on the deck of a Wendella sightseeing vessel on the Chicago River. Standing behind her are Jim Farrell of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce, Terry Doyle of Calumet River Fleeting, Michael Borgstrom, president of Wendella Sightseeing Company, and Jim Robbins of the Illinois Corn Growers Association. (Click on image to view larger version.) 12-Apr-10 – Against a backdrop of the Chicago River Monday morning, a U.S. Congresswoman and local business leaders who rely on the river repeated their call for a “balanced, common sense approach” to solving the Asian carp issue without sacrificing jobs. A report is expected later this month from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that will recommend what to do about the carp – large, hungry, prolific fish that have been migrating north since the 1990s. Once they reached the Great Lakes, it is believed they would disrupt the food chain. One possibility is at least a partial closing of locks on the Chicago River, including the one near Navy Pier. That, say experts, would cost businesses, jobs, and consumers. The Illinois Chamber of Commerce says closing the lock would cost $4.7 billion over 20 years, including $537 million in each of the first eight years. “The numbers are simply amazing,” says U.S. Representative Debbie Halvorson (D-IL), through whose district southeast of Chicago the Illinois River flows. “Nearly $5 billion, hundreds of businesses, thousands of jobs are at stake here.” She says consumers would notice higher prices, as the cost to transport goods increased. “Every year more than $16 billion worth of goods are transported in and out of Illinois on the waterway system. It includes petroleum, iron, coal, steel, cement, home heating oil, agriculture products, and road salt. 7.2 million tons of goods move through the Chicago and O’Brien [at Burnham, Illinois] locks alone.”
“It’s very important that we keep the waterway system open,” says Robbins, “because if our prices have to go up, the price in the grocery store’s probably going to go up and that’s just a ripple effect all the way down the line. It’s very important that we keep this open and that we have this for the future of agriculture and for all the other industries in Illinois.” Halvorson says the Illinois Department of Natural Resources has found no Asian carp north of electric barriers installed 70 miles downstream from the Chicago River. “And around the Starved Rock Dam in my district, they have only been able to find 40 carp in…six weeks of fishing.” e-DNA still “bad science” Most of the evidence of Asian carp is from their DNA that biologists have found in Illinois waterways. But business leaders are skeptical of the science and insist there is no imminent threat. “This so-called Asian carp invasion is miles from here,” says Michael Borgstrom, president of Wendella, “This threat has been put forth by bad science, if you will, a science called ‘e-DNA,’ which is being applied to detect Asian carp.” “Closing the lock will devastate my business,” he says. “70 percent of my business goes through that Chicago lock. My competitor across the river, his Lake and River Tours, that’s 100 percent of his business. Hundreds of jobs will be lost if that lock is closed. And the crazy idea that has been put forth of so-called modified lock operations – which would mean that the lock would be closed sometimes and open others – is insane. I don’t know how anyone can run a business, operating four days out of the week, once in a while, here and there.” Lock closure was put on the table last December when the State of Michigan filed for an emergency injunction with the U.S. Supreme Court to close the Chicago River locks. The high court turned down the request but on Friday will pick up the broader case between the two states. The Illinois Chamber of Commerce, meanwhile, has suggested eight alternatives to closing locks, such as harvesting the Asian carp downstream. Says Halvorson, “Many of us grew up here, and the lakes and these rivers mean so much to us, but so do our jobs and our businesses.”
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