There are EIGHT Great Lakes states...states that border the Great Lakes. Attorneys general from SIX of the EIGHT Great Lakes states are calling for a separation between the Mississippi and the Great Lakes watersheds.
And good god, this isn't just our elected officials, or even ME. The scientific community has beencalling for a hydrological separation of the Mississippi and the Great Lakes for years. But why?
Why?
WHY?!?!
Because a connection between them isn't supposed to BE THERE and it's a massive, accelerative vector for NASTY, vile, putrid, hateful, disgusting, evil, backstabbing, filthy invasive species between the two water bodies. THAT'S WHY. More than FORTY (40) high level invasive species threats have been identified as likely to cross from one watershed to the other. It's an environmental train wreck, remedial management is insanely expensive, it pollutes the waterways, causes toxic algae blooms, and it's PERMANENT. We HAVE to slow the spread of invasive species between the Mississippi and the Great Lakes watersheds, BOTH WAYS.
The only reason the GREAT LAKES water shed and the MISSISSIPPI water shed are connected is because a certain city which shall remain nameless (rhymes with CHICAGO) reversed the Chicago river in what was considered A HUNDRED AND TEN YEARS AGO to be a brilliant way to manage the city's waste. A HUNDRED AND TEN YEARS AGO it was considered an engineering marvel. ONE HUNDRED and TEN YEARS ago.
How cities like Detroit, Buffalo, Toledo, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Erie, and Windsor and EVERY OTHER major city along the Great Lakes has been managing to dispose of its waste without reversing the forces of nature and connecting two water sheds that had been separated for ten thousand years is a bit of a mystery. But somehow they manage.
And now, with Asian Carps knocking at the door of the Great Lakes from the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, SIX of the EIGHT Great Lakes states are demanding a renewed separation between the Great Lakes and Mississippi water sheds.
Great Lakes States: Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, New York, Indiana, Illinois
Great Lakes States that want to separate the water sheds: Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, New York
Illinois and Indiana are the only states that DO NOT want to separate the water sheds.
For some perspective on Pro vs. Con among Great Lakes states, see below where the RED part is the Great Lakes states that want to maintain the status quo. EVERYTHING ELSE represents states that want to shut down the connection between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi water shed.
Chicago, you KNOW I love you, but you're being unreasonably stubborn about this water thing. You don't own the Great Lakes. If this were a democracy, you'd be horribly, miserably outvoted by number of states, coast line mileage, hell even POPULATION. This has to happen.
Just close the freakin' locks. It's time for your hundred and ten year old "engineering marvel" to come to an end and separate the Mississippi and Great Lakes water sheds again, like they've been for 99% of the past hundred centuries. We can't let invasive species continue to have free reign of two of the largest United States fresh water systems. Just let it go.
[UPDATE]
Folks need to be aware this is NOT just about Asian Carps. Nor is it JUST about the Great Lakes.
There are currently FORTY (40) high level invasive species threats likely to cross over from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi or vice versa.
Unless the Mississippi and all its tributaries want an infestation of several species of the spiny water flea and new exotic toxic invertibrates...it's time to take this seriously. It's not just the Asian Carp.
[UPDATE2]
Good gravy...The hydrological separation between the watersheds isn't something I Just Made Up myself. Statesmen, the scientific community, environmentalists are pushing hard for this.
"You know it's big when academics and the management community say we don't need five more years of study," said Bill Taylor, University Distinguished professor in global fisheries sustainability at Michigan State University and a member of MSU's Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability. "The costs of hydrological separation are high, but it's a one-time expense and remediation in the Great Lakes from these invasive species will eventually make separation look cheap."
Taylor is one of four Great Lakes and Mississippi River researchers publishing a paper which breaks down four recent assertions that downplay the threat of the invasive Asian carp and questions the need to investigate ways to physically separate the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basins to prevent the further spread of harmful non-native species.
Cross posted fromMuskegon Critic