Congress May Lend Great Lakes a Hand: Bush is Not Expected to Veto Spending Act
By Todd Spangler, Detroit Free Press
Aug. 1–WASHINGTON — Shipping channels and harbors would be dredged at last. A new, supersize shipping lock would be built in Sault Ste. Marie. And the Great Lakes, presumably, would be saved from giant, voracious Asian carp.
As early as today, the U.S. House of Representatives could take up a brokered version of the Water Resources Development Act of 2007, a wide-ranging piece of legislation both chambers of Congress are expected to agree upon before leaving Washington on Friday for a monthlong recess.
The act contains hundreds of projects, including many which could benefit Michigan, the Great Lakes and environmental and commercial concerns. It is expected to pass, even though the White House has signaled concerns that the measure — with a price tag of at least $15 billion — is too expensive.
“It’s been six or seven years since the last one,” said Rep. Vern Ehlers, a Grand Rapids Republican who was a member of the conference committee that hammered out differences between House and Senate versions of the bill.
He predicted that President George W. Bush would not veto it, saying the act only authorizes the spending, which must then be included in budget bills.
“It’s badly overdue,” Ehlers said.
The legislation has a broad, national focus, touching on post-Hurricane Katrina work in Louisiana, beach replenishment efforts across the country and more.
Close to home, the legislation would authorize spending $3 million for the Detroit riverfront project and $20 million on a management plan to address problems on the St. Clair River and Lake St. Clair.
The legislation also includes $35 million to address sewer overflows across Michigan, helping communities to work with the state to address concerns that the amount of overflow has been increasing.
Still, for Michigan and the Upper Midwest, the most significant provision in the package may be one to combat the dreaded Asian carp.
The fish eat voraciously — crowding out other species — and are known to leap out of the water, smacking into anything that moves. If the carp, now in the Chicago River, make it into Lake Michigan, experts say they could spread throughout the Great Lakes, wreaking havoc on recreational and commercial fishing worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Mike Gnatkowski, a 51-year-old charter boat captain in Ludington, said no one is certain what impact Asian carp might have, but “it might be devastating.”
He said the aggressive carp could decimate the supply of smaller fish, hurting fishing in the Great Lakes, especially for trout and salmon.
“We should try to block them at all costs,” he said. “Money should not be an object, honestly.”
The legislation orders the Army Corps of Engineers to take over an electronic barrier along the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal — which helps to keep the fish from invading Lake Michigan — and expand it and build a secondary one to make it even less likely that the carp spread.
The barrier works by sending a current through the water, making the fish turn back, but it has had operational problems in the past.
“Right now, we basically have a couple strands of electric fence in the bottom of the Chicago River,” said Tim Eder, executive director of the Ann Arbor-based Great Lakes Commission, a conservation organization. “It’s our best line of defense.”
Perhaps more important than the cost — the expanded barrier and its backup are expected to cost less than $9 million — is the fact that the Corps, not the State of Illinois, will be responsible for its upkeep and operation.
Another key provision authorizes the Corps to step up navigational dredging throughout the lakes, a process some critics say has fallen off dramatically.
Low water levels and a backlog of dredging projects have resulted in Great Lakes ships being forced to travel lighter, reducing how much money they make for moving goods, shipping industry officials say.
“It’s critically important to us,” said Glen Nekvasil, vice president of the Lake Carriers Association, an industry group based in Cleveland. “The dredging of the lakes has been underfunded for decades.”
Also helping shippers would be the authorization of a new lock at Sault Ste. Marie — a $342-million, 1,200-foot-long backup to the Poe lock, which is the only one big enough to handle much of the U.S.-based freighter fleet operating in the Great Lakes. If the current lock, located where Lake Superior connects with the lower Great Lakes, failed, “the U.S. fleet would basically go to anchor,” Nekvasil said.
Contact TODD SPANGLER at 202-906-8203 or at tspangler@freepress.com.
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