Resolution to Separate Great Lakes Basin from Mississippi River Basin
Separate the Great Lakes Basin from the
The Izaak Walton League of
America has a long history of involvement with
the Mississippi River; in fact, the League was
founded in 1922 by 54 Anglers upset with how
the Mississippi and many other waterways were
being managed and manipulated.
In 1905, the Chicago Sanitary
and Ship Canal (CSSC) was built to flush the
sewage and industrial waste of Chicago away to
the Des Plaines and
Arkansas catfish farms imported
silver, black, and bighead carp, collectively
known as Asian carp, to control aquatic
vegetation in their operations. The fish
escaped confinement during flooding and since,
have infested the lower Mississippi River, the
Missouri River, the
Though government agencies have known about the threat of Asian carp to the Great Lakes for over ten years, poor planning, poor execution, and the lack of a lead agency have allowed the advancement of the carp to, and probably through, the CSSC.
The fish have the potential to
ruin Great Lakes ecology and sport fisheries
and infest every river and bay that connects to
the Great Lakes. The bulk of the current
opposition to separating the CSSC from Lake
Michigan is due to the impact on the shipping
of the barge industry using the
canal.
The fish are thought to have breached the electrical barriers built by US Army Corps of Engineers and there is DNA evidence that some may have already entered Lake Michigan.
The only way to prevent more carp from entering the Great Lakes and to prevent other invasive species from entering one watershed from the other is to physically isolate Lake Michigan from the CSSC.
Therefore, be it resolved that
the Izaak Walton League of America, assembled
in convention in Hershey, PA, July 16, 2010,
urges Congress to establish a permanent
hydrological separation of the Great Lakes
basin from the
Approved 7/16/10