Mayor Daley: Chicago shouldn't bear full cost of Asian carp
| Chicago
Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley agrees that the Asian carp present an ecological and economic threat to the Great Lakes. But he disagrees with neighboring states that Illinois should lock down a historic canal that allows the fish to get to Lake Michigan.
In a letter published in the Washington Post this week, Mayor Daley argued that the invasive species 鈥� which experts say will destroy the lake ecosystem 鈥� is a 鈥渘ational problem that requires national solutions鈥� and therefore Illinois alone should not have to foot the costs associated with addressing the problem.
鈥淣o one should accept the notion that the governments and their citizens who happen to reside closest to Lake Michigan should be forced to assume all the responsibility for this problem, or take on the environmental and economic costs associated with solving it,鈥� he wrote.
Michigan filed a lawsuit against Illinois in December arguing for the closure of the O鈥橞rien Lock and Dam in the Calumet-Sag Channel and the Chicago Controlling Works in the Illinois River 鈥� the point being to seal off the fish from entering Lake Michigan after DNA evidence showed some Asian carp had made it to the lake鈥檚 waters already. (For first time, Asian carp DNA found in Lake Michigan. Monitor report here.)
Daley said the Chicago canal, an artificial and century-old waterway linking Lake Michigan with the Mississippi River, is 鈥渏ust one of a large number of passageways by which invasive species enter the Great Lakes.鈥�
Illinois, Daley wrote, should not be 鈥渆xpected to simply agree to Michigan's proposed 鈥榮olution鈥� of closing the navigational locks on Chicago's waterways 鈥� the complexity of this system means that you cannot simply flip a switch and declare it closed.鈥� (Governors meet at White House about Asian carp. Monitor report here.)
Daley touted his past leadership in confronting the Asian carp problem, which includes working with state lawmakers and Canadian authorities. His pro-environment position as is familiar to Chicagoans, who are used to such high-profile public initiatives as a plan to slash greenhouse gas emissions, an aggressive tree planting program, and a rooftop garden atop city hall.
However Daley鈥檚 credentials as a 鈥済reen mayor鈥� also are marked by multiple complaints from environmental groups that say Chicago lacks a comprehensive program to confront its transit problems and traffic congestion and that the mayor has done little to regulate two polluting power plants on the city鈥檚 South Side.
The largest roadblock to Daley鈥檚 environmental legacy is the city鈥檚 failed recycling program. A blue bag program was launched in 1995, but was abandoned in 2008 after criticism the program was ineffective in recycling the majority of collected waste. A curbside recycling program was announced as its replacement but it is not yet available to all neighborhoods in the city.
The results of the failed efforts came to light this week when the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency published a report that said that in 2008 the average Chicagoan produced 56 percent more pounds of trash a day than the average Illinois resident.
鈥淯nfortunately, we're going in the wrong direction,鈥� the Chicago Reader reported this week. 鈥淐hicago鈥檚 waste output is now more than 300 percent what it was in the early 1980s. Across the US, it鈥檚 gone up about 65 percent.鈥�
