Lansing, MI - The nation's new Asian carp czar said Wednesday that, as a fisherman, he understands personally the threat of Asian carp to the Great Lakes and will do everything he can to halt the fish's steady march past barriers intended to hold it back.
However, John Goss, former director of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources and current director of the Indiana Wildlife Federation, said he had no opinion yet on separating the Mississippi River and Great Lakes by walling off the canal that links the two.
The White House chose Goss as director of the year-old Asian Carp Regional Coordinating Committee, a group of state and federal agencies working to stop bighead and silver carp from entering the lakes. His appointment was announced Wednesday.
No other invasive species has its own White House-level director, the Obama administration said. There hasn't been such a concentrated effort to attack a species since 1955, when the binational Great Lakes Fishery Commission was set up to control sea lamprey.
"The creation of this position further demonstrates that the Asian carp issue is not just a challenge for Illinois but the entire nation," said Marc Miller, director of the Illinois Department of Natural Resource, which has until now, led much of the anti-carp effort, including poisoning various waterways.
One of Goss' challenges will be corralling warring states, which have differing views on lock closures and separating the Great Lakes and Mississippi waters. As Goss' appointment was announced, testimony was continuing in an Illinois court room in a lawsuit filed by five Great Lakes states, including Michigan, seeking permanent lock closures.
"We hope he shows independence from what is essentially a Chicago-based White House, one which protects Illinois' interests over those of the Great Lakes," said John Sellek, spokesman for Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox.
Goss said he's waiting for a study by the Army Corps of Engineers to form his own opinion on whether the watersheds should be permanently separated. That study is not due to be completed until next year.
U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow said Wednesday that the speed of the Army Corps' study is one of the items Goss needs to address. "The timetable is way too slow," she said.
0 comments:
Post a Comment