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