View PRN’s Prairie River Notes – Summer 2010 Newsletter (pdf) with the following articles:
- Big Wheels Keep on Rolling – Update on Traveling Science Center
- A Message from our Executive Director
- PRN Annual Dinner – October 29th
- River Steward Nominations
- Helping Champaign Homeowners Manage Stormwater Through Rain Gardens and Rain Barrels
- Illinois Contaminated by Coal Pollution
- How You Can Help Reduce Illinois’ Coal Pollution Problem
- PRN Studying Public Waterway Rights
- Ready to Unveil! Webpages for Watershed Groups
- Thank You Interns and Volunteers
Action Deadline: TUESDAY JUNE 29TH, 10 AM
Bighead carp captured in Lake Calumet on 6/22/10 (IDNR)
Members of the House and Senate are circulating a letter among their colleagues asking them to sign on. The letter is to President Obama and urges him to immediately strengthen the barrier and implement all other measures necessary to stop Asian carp from migrating into the Great Lakes. It also asks that the Administration expedite its study to develop an aggressive strategy for permanent hydrologic separation of the Mississippi River and Great Lakes basins. These steps are necessary if we are to keep Asian carp out of Lake Michigan and prevent countless other invasions between the two basins. This issue is particularly urgent given the recent discovery of a live Asian carp near Lake Michigan.
Please take a moment to contact Senators Durbin (202-224-2152) and Burris (202-224-2854) and your Representative (look up here) and urge them to sign onto this letter.
The deadline to sign on is Tuesday, June 29 at noon. Congressional members can contact the following staff to sign on: Katie Murtha (Rep. Dingell), Ben Gielow (Rep. Ehlers), Alice Yates (Sen. Levin), or Lauri Hettinger (Sen. Voinovich).
The following members have already signed on: Reps. Dingell (MI), Slaughter (NY), and Ehlers (MI), and Sens. Levin (MI) and Voinovich (OH).
We’ve been tracking a terrible bill in the Illinois Senate this spring that would allow irresponsible development in flood-prone areas. It may also make thousands of Illinois residents ineligible for federal flood insurance and disaster relief.
You can help by calling bill sponsor Senator Haine (217.782-5247 or 618.465-4764) and ask him to withdraw Senate Bill 2556. You can also call or write your own state senator and representative and ask them not to vote for SB2556.
Illinois Sierra Club Floodplain Chair, President of American Bottom Conservancy, and Prairie Rivers Network supporter Kathy Andria describes problems with the Bill in a Letter to the Editor that appeared in the 3/21/10 Madison & St. Clair Record. We reprint the text below:
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Action Alert! Calls and Letters Still Needed
Coal Ash is “HAZARDOUS”
- Coal ash floating down river after a Tennessee coal ash slurry disaster, Dec 22, 2008. Photo Credit: Brian Stansberry from Wikimedia Commons.
The time has come for citizens throughout the country to make the Obama Administration hear our concerns on coal ash. Let’s join together and send a strong, coordinated message to Washington that coal ash needs to be regulated immediately! We must convince the White House that the EPA must publish their recommended standards based on science, not industry lobby pressure.
You Can Help By:
- Participating in the Call-in Day of Action on January 28th. We must generate thousands of emails and phone calls to the White House, Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the US EPA and Congressional Offices telling them coal ash is hazardous and federal regulations are needed immediately. There is no more time for delay!
- White House switchboard (202)456-1414
- USEPA Administrator Lisa Jackson (202) 564-4700; jackson.lisap@epa.gov
- Writing Letters to the Editor (LTE’s) to generate a buzz about the coal ash issue and the Day of Action. The goal is to convince the White House that we, the public, want and deserve to comment on common sense minimum federal standards for disposal of Coal Ash to protect our surface and ground water. Keep reading for talking points and sample LTE’s. Click here for talking points and sample Letters to the Editor
- Let us know when you call, write or get an LTE in the paper (info@prairierivers.org). It is important for us to let elected officials know how many of their constituents want to see their communities protected with the proper management of coal ash.
Sign up today to reserve your spot at a RiverWatch training workshop
Fresh water is a scarce resource and it is our responsibility to protect it for ourselves and future generations. The Illinois RiverWatch program offers you the opportunity to become involved in the stewardship of the state’s streams. RiverWatch certified volunteers, or Citizen Scientists, play an important role in helping identify potentially degraded waters and areas that may need better protection. Citizen scientists examine indicators of water quality like stream habitat and the diversity of species such as dragonfly nymphs, beetle larva, midges and snails. This interactive workshop will give you the tools to test water quality like a professional. {Continue Reading »}
Asian carp jumping out of the Illinois River near Havana, IL
Invasive Asian Carp have been detected only six miles from Lake Michigan in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, past an electric barrier designed to keep them out of the Great Lakes. The Asian Carp Rapid Response Workgroup completed operations in late November 2009 involving intensive fishing and a major rotenone application to kill all fish in a six mile stretch of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal in an effort locate and halt the spread of the carp invasion.
This was a drastic measure, taken because much is at stake if Asian carp are able to reach and populate Lake Michigan and the Great Lakes. But we can’t let this drastic event become an ongoing management measure. Nor can we allow this manmade gateway between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River Basin to remain open and available as a conduit for further invasion to both basins. While the current threat is from invasive Asian carp to Lake Michigan, we shouldn’t lose sight of the threat posed to Illinois rivers and streams from this connection; this was the pathway for invasion of the zebra mussels into much of the eastern half of the United States. We must call on the State of Illinois and the Army Corps of Engineers to act immediately to close all connections between the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, adjacent waterways including the Des Plaines River and the I&M Cnanal, and Lake Michigan. Take action here!
Learn more about the threat of Asian Carp to our rivers and Great Lakes and what must be done to ensure protection of our aquatic resources here.
