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What’s it take to make the break?

The Chicago Waterway System, engineered in 1900 to reverse the flow of the Chicago River, is a complex system of rivers and canals diverting Chicago’s wastewater from Lake Michigan to the Illinois River.

It also creates an artificial connection between the Great Lakes and Mississippi River, a superhighway for organisms – such as the zebra mussel, round goby and now Asian carp- to travel between the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes.

Scientists are warning us that future aquatic invasions put the Great Lakes at risk of an “ecosystem breakdown.”

Given the threat invasive species such as the Asian carp pose to the health of the Great Lakes, we must find a way to stop their migration down the Chicago canal. The most effective, permanent option we have is to re-instate the ecological separation between the Great Lakes watershed and the Mississippi River.

In 2008, the Alliance for the Great Lakes released a report calling for the break up of the Mississippi River and Great Lakes watersheds.

There are at least six locations where permanent physical barriers could be built to separate the watersheds. The report prioritizes them according to a preliminary feasibility analysis. Any solution will likely place barriers at several locations.

A permanent breakup of the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basins is the only guaranteed way to keep invasive species from traveling between the two and causing devastating irreversible damage.

A feasible separation solution will:

1. Stop aquatic organisms at all life stages from moving between the Great Lakes and Mississippi River via the Chicago waterways;

2. Accommodate the vast majority of commodity traffic within the waterways, as only a fraction of that traffic actually enters Lake Michigan;

3. Provide new methods of moving recreational boaters between the Illinois River and Lake Michigan;

4. Anticipate very occasional overflows into Lake Michigan to prevent local flooding, while improving the water quality of the lake and waterways;

5. Serve as a one-time payment for 100 percent effective, permanent protection against invasive species.

© 2010 Great Lakes News.