Corps of Engineers Closes Chicago Canal

Officials have locked down a Chicago shipping channel while they dump in poison to prevent what could become an invasive fish species disaster, but the barge industry says the effort is also killing some river shipping business.

The American Waterways Operators, which represents inland river towboat and barge lines, said the sudden closing of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal and a lock on the Calumet River “threatens the delivery of commodities essential to the Chicago region.”

Shutting the route off to barging for 10 days without warning to inland mariners “shows a lack of understanding and consideration by the agencies of the economic impact of the shutdown,” the group said. It will raise delivery costs and stop some shipments outright, the AWO said.

Authorities took the emergency action to head off penetration into the Great Lakes of the Asian carp, a large fish that quickly crowds out other species in a short time and had infested the river system leading up to Chicago.

The threat to the lakes’ $7 billion fishing industry was deemed so great that Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm and five enviromental groups were considering a lawsuit to force the Army Corps of Engineers to shut down river locks at Chicago to prevent the carp’s further progress.

The Corps uses electronic barriers, which shock fish, to prevent them from entering Lake Michigan, but genetic material from the Asian carp has been detected beyond the barriers. The fish is so strong and grows so large that it sometimes leaps several feet out of the water and has been known to injure boaters.

Authorities used the poison to kill thousands of fish while doing some routine maintenance on the barrier. One was found in the canal Thursday. But AWO said barges also supply most of the region’s heating oil and road salt, so shutting the locks ahead of winter could disrupt important supplies.

Contact John D. Boyd at jboyd@joc.com.