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Each year, commodities worth $29 billion travel through the locks in the Chicago
Area Waterway System. Lock closure disrupts this vital transportation corridor and
creates increased costs and delays, impacting a myriad of industries and entities
throughout the region. For example, the agriculture industry across the U.S will see
the immediate, detrimental effects of these closures through higher transportation
costs, limited options for transportation and reduced service schedules. During a
time of widespread financial struggle, the Midwest cannot afford crippling costs
associated with closing the Chicago locks.


 

^c Disruption affects billions of dollars in grain shipments throughout the region.

Those effects will also ripple out to consumers and other sectors of the
economy. Consider the value of grain shipped within Midwest states alone:


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Wisconsin $69
Ohio $309
Mississippi $467
Kentucky $505
Tennessee $539
Indiana $604





^c Waterway shipping is the most cost effective method for transporting many
agricultural products. Affordable, convenient access to waterway
transportation has allowed the Mississippi Valley Region to thrive for over
160 years.

^c America¶s waterway systems are an interdependent network. Closure of any

one portion of the waterway systems disrupts commerce along the entire
length of the waterway, increasing costs and limiting service.

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Oc A recent study estimates closure of the locks will increase shipping
costs for the Illinois agricultural community by more than a half-billion
dollars a year. £


 


 
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^c Solutions to prevent the spread of Asian carp exist that will not negatively
impact agricultural shipping on the waterways

Oc Current control barriers are successful. There is no need for the USACE
to take such an economically disastrous measure as shutting down the
locks when the current barrier system is effective.

Oc Other options for preventing Asian carp from establish a reproducing

population in the Great Lakes have not yet been implemented or
exhausted. Other methods include: electric barriers, acoustic
deterrents, strobe lights and air bubble curtains, all of which keep the
Locks open.
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^c The U.S Fish and Wildlife Service¶s Risk Assessment Panel concluded closing
the locks will not reduce the risk of Asian carp reaching the Great Lakes.
Oc A report from the U.S Army Corps of Engineers states that, ³of the six
alternatives presented by the Corps, there is no individual or
combination of lock operation scenarios that experts believe will lower
risk of Asian carps establishing self-sustaining populations in Lake
Michigan to an acceptable level.´ (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Dispersal
Barrier Efficacy Study, p. 25
http://www.lrc.usace.army.mil/pao/02June2010_InterimIII.pdf.)


 
 

In recent testimony from the hearing on Asian carp in the Senate Subcommittee on
Energy and Natural Resources, experts discussed successful barriers for preventing
Asian carp from establishing a self-sustaining population in the Great Lakes
ecosystem. This evidence combined with the inevitable economic effects that will
accompany lock closures on American industry is more than enough proof the
country cannot afford closure of these locks. Americans needs their lawmakers to
create a comprehensive, multi-tiered solution that keeps transportation open and
commerce flowing while keeping the Great Lakes ecosystem safe.

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