Slaughter applauds new efforts to protect Great Lakes, keeps up pressure on Army Corps

Congresswoman Louise Slaughter, D-NY-28, ranking member of the House Rules Committee, this week reacted to the release of the Obama Administration's 2012 Asian Carp Control Strategy Framework, which details several new initiatives to combat the spread of Asian carp and prevent their introduction into the Great Lakes.

"I applaud these new measures to protect the ecosystems and economies that depend on the Great Lakes," said Slaughter, who serves as co-chair of the Great Lakes taskforce. "We must continue to fight for a permanent solution to the Asian carp threat, which, in my view, requires a permanent separation of the Great Lakes from the Mississippi River basin. This month, I called upon the Army Corps of Engineers to accelerate their study of this critical issue and I will continue to do all I can to protect our greatest local treasure - the Great Lakes."

The 2012 framework updates the past work of the Asian Carp Regional Coordinating Committee, which released the original Asian carp framework in February 2010 and a subsequent report in 2011. The framework details necessary measures to control and prevent the spread of Asian carp. Highlights from the 2012 report include:

•Deployment of new alternate traps and nets and other technologies to enhance Asian carp capture rates.

•Implement eDNA sampling at priority Great Lakes locations with particular focus on southern Lake Michigan and western Lake Erie.

•Initiate design and construction of the permanent barrier to replace barrier 1.

Earlier this month, Slaughter wrote a letter with her Great Lakes colleagues to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers urging the Corps to accelerate the Great Lakes Mississippi River Interbasin Study. The study examines options to permanently separate the Great Lakes from the Mississippi River and prevent the spread of Asian carp in the Great Lakes.