[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 9] [Senate] [Page 11870] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]PROTECTING THE GREAT LAKES Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, one of the greatest assets in my part of the world would be Lake Michigan. If you ask the people of Chicago: What do you think is the greatest thing about the city of Chicago, in a recent survey they overwhelmingly responded it is Lake Michigan because it is so beautiful, and we are fortunate to be near it and take advantage of it, using beaches and being out on boats, and mainly looking out the window at this magnificent lake, which I get a chance to do when I go up to the city. So when the issue of the future of Lake Michigan and the question about whether it is going to be the victim of invasive species comes up, we take it seriously. I do not know how many years ago some people decided a very wise thing to do would be to import into the United States a fish called the Asian carp. So they brought in this Asian carp--and I believe it was in the State of Arkansas, though I do not want to pick on them; I think this is true--and they were going to raise these carp for some reason, and there was some flooding and the carp ended up in the Mississippi River. Now they are all over the Mississippi River and those tributaries leading to it. Well, if we follow the Mississippi River north from Arkansas and make a right-hand turn north of St. Louis and head up the Illinois River, we are on our way up Lake Michigan. That is the route the Asian carp have been following. Well, they are all over the Illinois River on their way up to Lake Michigan. These are fish which grow to enormous sizes and suck up everything in sight on which other fish would live. So they are an invasive species that is a danger to other species of fish, and there has been a great fear for a long time they would reach Lake Michigan and change its future as a fishery. So I joined with Republican Congresswoman Judy Biggert, and we started pouring in millions of dollars 10 years ago to stop this fish. This fish is insidious. It just grows by leaps and bounds and attacks people. Hard to imagine, isn't it? Boaters going down the Illinois River will see these fish jumping out of the river at the boaters. It is a danger. I have seen videos, and I know it is. This is an aggressive species of fish that can destroy Lake Michigan. So Congresswoman Biggert and I built electronic fences that create an electrical shock at points in the river to stop the fish from moving toward Lake Michigan. We have done that twice. We now think we have to do it more. There is a real concern not only in Chicago and Illinois but around Lake Michigan, the surrounding States, about how successful this effort is going to be. Last week, we continued to fish and look for these Asian carp, and we found one in Lake Calumet, just miles from Lake Michigan. From my point of view, that was a wake-up call. Somehow a fish had reached the other side of the electronic barrier. I do not know if it was dumped in Lake Calumet--we are doing some studies to find out--or whether it migrated there. Regardless, what I am doing with Senator Debbie Stabenow of the State of Michigan is introducing legislation today calling on the Army Corps of Engineers to take a serious, comprehensive look at ways to avoid any contamination of Lake Michigan from this fish. These studies usually take forever. Senator Stabenow and I are encouraging the corps to move on them very quickly. Secondly, I have written to the White House and have spoken with the President's Chief of Staff about appointing a coordinator who will try to bring together all the Federal agencies that are dealing with this invasive species, the State and local efforts, and coordinating them to be more effective and focus on stopping this fish moving forward. We are trying to also increase the amount of money being spent to build fences and more electronic barriers to stop these fish from their migration toward Lake Michigan. This is critical for us to do for the future of Lake Michigan and the Great Lakes. It is something we have worked on for years. We will continue to work on it. We take it very seriously. I thank Senator Stabenow for joining me in that effort, and I encourage all the Senators from the Great Lakes area, if they would consider it, to join us as cosponsors. Madam President, I see the Senator from Missouri has taken the floor on the Republican side. I yield the floor. The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Missouri. ____________________