Last week the Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Water and Wildlife held a legislative hearing on three bills with importance to the Great Lakes region. The first bill is the Great Lakes Ecological and Economic Protection Act (GLEEPA) (S. 1232), co-sponsored by the Great Lakes Task Force Co-Chairs Sens. Carl Levin (MI) and Mark Kirk (IL), and eight other Great Lakes Task Force and delegation members. GLEEPA authorizes the Administration's Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, which has invested over $1.6 billion in federal funds in Great Lakes restoration activities to date, and a multi-stakeholder Great Lakes Advisory Board to advise program implementation. The Act also reauthorizes the Great Lakes Legacy Act and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Great Lakes National Program Office. The second bill, the Great Lakes Protection Act (S. 571), was introduced by Great Lakes Task Force Co-Chairs Sens. Kirk and Levin, and co-sponsored by Great Lakes Task Force Members Sens. Richard Durbin (IL) and Debbie Stabenow (MI). S. 571 aims to completely eliminate Combined Sewer Overflows into the Great Lakes by 2033.  It also establishes a Great Lakes Cleanup Fund capitalized by penalty funds associated with discharge violations, to be used for wastewater treatment options in the region. The third bill is Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's (NY) Invasive Fish and Wildlife Prevention Act (S. 1153), co-sponsored by Great Lakes Task Force Co-Chair Sen. Carl Levin (MI).  S. 1153 strengthens the ability of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to prevent the planned importation to and subsequent establishment of harmful species (aquatic and terrestrial) in the U.S.. Administration and outside witnesses at the hearing gave support to all three bills. Notably, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Principle Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Office of Water, Mr. Mike Shapiro, noted that protecting and restoring the Great Lakes is not a regional issue but rather "a national and even international imperative." Now that the Subcommittee has considered the bills in a legislative hearing, the full Committee may review them to recommend as is or in an amended form for full Senate consideration and potential passage. All of the bills have companion bills on the House side (H.R. 2773; H.R. 1185; H.R. 996).

For more information, contact Danielle Chesky, Director, Great Lakes Washington Program at the Northeast-Midwest Institute.  

Minnesota DNR Contractor Catches Two Asian Carp Upstream of Previous Sightings   

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (MN DNR) announced that its contractors netted two adult non-native Asian Carp, one a Bighead Carp and the other a Silver Carp, in Pool 2 of the Mississippi River in the Cottage Grove, Minnesota area on July 17. Because of the ability of Asian Carp and many other non-native fish to compete with and displace native species, invasive fish are a significant threat to native biodiversity and the economy in the Mississippi River watershed. Pool 2 is formed upstream of the Army Corps of Engineers Lock and Dam 2 at Mississippi River mile 815.2 near Hastings, Minnesota.

Prior to last week's catch, Bighead Carp had not been detected above the mouth of the St. Croix River near Prescott, Wisconsin, and Silver Carp had not been detected above Pool 5A near Winona, Wisconsin. Pool 5A is formed by Lock and Dam 5A, located near Fountain City, Wisconsin and Goodview, Minnesota around Mississippi River mile 728.5. Large numbers of several Asian Carp species have progressively made their way upstream in the Mississippi River Basin for decades, since their release in the 1970s into the Lower Mississippi River from fish farming operations. Since then, Bighead, Silver and Grass Carp (and less extensively Black Carp) have been captured throughout much of the Mississippi River watershed from Louisiana to South Dakota, Minnesota and Ohio. Populations of both species are well-established in the Mississippi River and its tributaries downstream of Pool 16, formed by Lock and Dam 16, near Muscatine, Iowa (around river mile 457.2).

The MN DNR plans to continue Asian Carp sampling this week in an attempt to determine if additional and smaller Carp individuals are in the upper reaches of Pool 2.

For more information, please contact Mark Gorman, Policy Analyst at the Northeast-Midwest Institute.