A new Army Corps of Engineers study of Chicago-area waterways has stirred the debate over whether to sever the connection between Lake Michigan and inland waterways that were created by the construction of canals a century ago. The study, released on Dec. 7, is part of the Corps’s nearly decade-long process aimed at preventing invasive species, including voracious Asian carp, from spreading between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River ecosystems.
But how to achieve that environmental goal has become bound up with varying predictions of what the future of shipping in the Midwest, and even farther South, will be.
Advocates of separating the waterway system from Lake Michigan said that the study bolstered their case because it found that in 2008 only 12 percent of Chicago-waterways cargo moved between Chicago-area waterways and the lake, the great majority of it to and from industries in nearby northwest Indiana. Opponents have argued that closing off the lake would block a vital shipping route.
Experts with varying positions on the Asian carp debate said that the study’s findings suggested that revival of the waterways depends on new investment and an updated vision for their commercial role in the future.
The Army Corps study said that in 2008 cargo shipments — which it describes as “flat or declining” since 1994 — were about 26 percent coal, 18 percent aggregates like sand and crushed rock, 17 percent material related to the iron and steel industries and the rest other commodites like fuel, chemicals and minerals.
Those commodities are affected by uncertain economic and manufacturing trends. If the city’s two coal plants shut down or convert to another fuel source because of environmental regulations, for example, coal shipments could plummet. The coal-fired State Line power station in northwest Indiana is scheduled to close by 2014.
Between 1994 and 2009 iron and steel shipments on the waterways declined an average of 6.6 percent annually, the study said, as the industries shrank.
Some experts hope that renewed manufacturing in the region could mean more waterway traffic, but others say that factories producing specialized items like wind-turbine blades are more likely to ship components and finished products by train and truck. They noted that barges are better suited for bulk raw materials like coal, road salt and sand.
Some planners and environmental groups argue that a new intermodal facility on Chicago’s South Side — where barge cargo would be loaded onto trucks or trains for delivery to industries in Indiana — would allow the waterways to be disconnected from Lake Michigan.
But it’s not that simple, Jody Peacock, the corporate affairs director for Ports of Indiana, said.
“It seems so close you could just pop it right over there,” he said. “But these are huge quantities we’re talking about. It could cost more to go that last few miles by truck than it costs to float it across the country on barges.”
A wild card in the debate is the expansion of the Panama Canal, scheduled to be completed in 2014. Some experts think an increase in international shipping on the Gulf Coast will mean opportunities for building or expanding ports along the Mississippi River and Chicago-area waterways, as more imported cargo moves up the Mississippi and more grain and other Midwestern commodities are exported from Gulf Coast ports.
John Vickerman, president of a Virginia port-planning firm, said the Panama Canal expansion could mean a substantial influx of cargo into the Chicago area, assuming Gulf Coast ports are deepened so they can accept the massive ships that will pass through the expanded canal.
He envisioned new ports in the Chicago area equipped to handle shipping containers, which are not now moved on local waterways or the Great Lakes.
Josh Ellis, project manager for the Metropolitan Planning Council, said the possibility of new ports to handle shipping containers could fit in with continuing improvements to Chicago’s rail system to relieve congestion.
“If you’re going to start tinkering with the waterway system to create a barrier for invasive species, it would be really nice to improve the region’s transportation system as you did it,” he said. “But I’ve yet to see any defensible data on how much cargo of what kinds and from what destinations will likely be passing through the region in the next 20, 30, 40, or 50 years.”
Jim LaBelle, vice president of the civic planning group Metropolis Strategies, said the Panama Canal’s possible role in reviving local shipping is “certainly worth paying some attention to, but it’s uncertain yet where the economics would go.”
Two weeks after the cargo study, the Army Corps released another report, listing 39 species of fish, mollusks, algae and plants that could soon migrate between Chicago-area waterways and Lake Michigan and wreak ecological havoc. It also listed possible methods of preventing their spread, including physically separating the waterways or blocking or killing organisms with chemicals, heat, “bubble curtains” or low-oxygen zones.
Dave Wethington, project manager for the Army Corps in Chicago, said the Corps would run computerized models to determine the economic and logistical effects of each option, with a final report due in 2015.
On Jan. 31, the Great Lakes Commission and the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative — partnerships of United States and Canadian mayors and other government officials — will release their own study with proposals to revamp the waterways to block invasive species, stimulate cargo transport and recreational use and improve water quality.
“By looking at a barrier, flood control, water quality and transportation at the same time, you can really come up with a better solution” than by dealing solely with invasive species, said David Ullrich, executive director of the partnership. “We’re trying to pull this together in a much more integrated fashion than ever has been done before — we don’t think we have the luxury of looking at this piecemeal.”
One troubling aspect of this issue is the assumption that damming or severing Chicago’s waterways will stop invasive species migration. We know that invasive species migration cannot be stopped by physical barriers.
Asian Carp, for instance, are found in isolated lakes throughout the Midwest and recently evidence of Asian Carp was found above the Coon Rapids Dam on the Upper Mississippi River – a substantial structure with no locks to permit fish to bypass the dam. In addition, Zebra Mussels have migrated over the continental divide and invasive Northern Pike have been migrating to isolated lakes in Alaska for years. Scientists are now telling us that biological controls, rather than physical barriers, are the smartest solution to controlling invasive species.
Furthermore, it makes no sense to justify severing Chicago’s waterways because commercial traffic is down due to a struggling economy. Doing so would only further cripple the industries dependent on commodities shipped through the waterways and further jeopardize industries and jobs throughout the Midwest and the Mississippi River basin.
Over the next five years our biggest global competitor, China, will spend $30.5 billion developing its commercial inland waterway transportation systems. Their goal is to increase the cargo capacity of their waterway transportation system by 80 percent to make them even more competitive in the global economy.
France has committed $6.5 billion to construct a new canal system by 2016 linking Paris waterways to 12,500 miles of canal systems in northern France and Europe much the same way that Chicago’s canal system links two vital economic regions of the United States. The new canal will benefit the environment by taking 500,000 trucks off the highways and help France comply with European environmental regulations on truck emissions. Furthermore the project is being driven by the high cost of fuel. The new canal will double the amount of water freight in France and reduce truck traffic by 25 percent. French Prime Minister Nicolas Sarkozy claims the new canal system will “put Paris at the heart of Europe.”
Isn’t that the kind of big thinking we really need for Chicago’s waterways and Midwest industry? When the expansion of the Panama Canal is complete, Chicago’s waterways may well be vital corridors for efficiently moving goods by barge between all the Great Lakes states and Gulf ports serving Asian markets.
Aside from commercial traffic Chicago’s waterways support over 8,000 pleasure craft that navigate the canals and rivers for access to and from Lake Michigan, Chicago’s waterways, and the Illinois River. Recreational boating is a pillar of Chicago’s economy and Chicago has become one of the nation’s leading recreational boating cities with the largest municipal marina system in the country.
Severing Chicago’s waterways would destroy a major part of that recreational resource and the businesses it supports and tax revenues it generates. On a busy day over 50 boats may pass through Chicago’s locks at a time as they navigate between Lake Michigan and the waterway system which includes several inland municipal and private marinas as well as those on the lake operated by the city’s park system. In recent years several residential complexes have been developed on the waterways to accommodate recreational boaters and there will be many more in the future.
Throwing dirt into a strategic commercial and recreational waterway to stop invasive species is a 19th century solution to a 21st century problem. We are smarter than that and better solutions exist that will accommodate a Chicago waterway system that will support far greater commercial and recreational opportunities in the future that will enable us to grow the Midwest economy.