Senator Yvonne Prettner Solon: Supports Asian Carp Initiative

State Senator Yvonne Prettner Solon this past week voted to support a Great Lakes Commission resolution calling on Congress and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to embrace a clear goal of ecological separation of the Great Lakes and Mississippi River watersheds as the key, permanent strategy in the war against Asian carp and their threatened invasion of the Great Lakes.

Sen. Prettner Solon currently serves as a commission member representing Minnesota.

The resolution, approved by the Commission at its semiannual meeting February 22-24 in Washington, D.C., asks Congress to provide the Corps with authority and substantial resources to complete the study of ecological separation to prevent movement of invasive species between the watersheds of the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes and to accelerate completion of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal portion of the study to September 2011.

The resolution also calls for accelerating the timetable for full operation of the Asian carp barrier system on the Chicago Ship and Sanitary Canal and to establish structural measures to prevent the inadvertent introduction of Asian carp from floodwaters of the Des Plaines River into the canal, and ultimately the Great Lakes.

The eight member states of the Commission, along with associate Canadian member provinces of Ontario and Québec, voiced consensus on the need to inhibit further movement of Asian carp northward to the Great Lakes.