Sierra Club Ontario At Chicago Waterway System Meeting

On October 25 Sierra Club Ontario’s Great Lakes Section was represented at the Toronto Public Meeting of Envisioning a Chicago Waterway System for the 21^st Century (website).  This is a joint project of the Great Lakes Commission and the Great Lakes & St. Lawrence Cities Initiative, sponsored by $2 Million in funding from six regional entities.

Sierra Club Ontario lauds the approach taken to present three possible approaches to Ecological Separation of the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River.  While our overriding concern is the closing of the conduit to the Great Lakes, this project is wisely emphasizing a solution that would protect both watersheds from the transfer of all aquatic invasive species between the basins, not just Asian carp.

Interestingly the first slide shown at the Public Meeting was entitled A river reversed, a problem created  1900.  The four purposes and goals of the proposed Long-Term Solution, Ecological Separation are: Asian Carp, Transportation, Water Quality, and Stormwater Flood Management.  Three approaches were described:  a) five barriers near Lake Michigan; b) one barrier away from downtown Chicago; c) reverse all the flow and upgrade all filtering plants to Lake Michigan standards, with a terminal for commercial boats.  

In an artist’s rendering at the Calumet River and O’Brien Lock:

• barges meet the barrier and offload to ships
• everything is disinfected
• new commercial opportunities of containers from an expanded Panama Canal present themselves

The two presenters, Tim Eder and Dave Ullrich stressed these “take home messages”:

• the January 31, 2012 report deadline will be met
• “separation” is the theme but in the interim, alternatives will continue to be necessary
• three options are presented, but no preference is stated; this is not a consensus-building undertaking
• this work is complementary to the major local study by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

In answering a Canadian’s question, Tim and Dave expressed concern about pollution crossing the border and asked the Canadian public to become active.  “Public opinion is even more significant than the Boundary Waters Treaty!”

Roy Schatz, Member, Great Lakes Section