HR0244 97TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0244 LRB097 11286 KXB 53516 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The flow of the Chicago River into Lake Michigan was reversed one hundred years ago to protect the safety of drinking water for the Chicago region and to facilitate navigation and commerce through a series of locks and canals; and

WHEREAS, In 2008, the Port of Chicago in the Chicago Area Waterway System was ranked 6th in the United States for exports to other countries by the United States Commerce Department; and

WHEREAS, The Chicago region's five biggest exports were chemicals ($6.1 billion), computers and electronic products ($5.2 billion), non-electrical machinery ($3.4 billion), transportation equipment ($3.2 billion), and electrical equipment, appliances, and components ($1.7 billion); and

WHEREAS, A 2007 study commissioned by the Illinois Chamber of Commerce estimated that $29 billion worth of petroleum, chemicals, building materials, farm products, coal, and other products and raw materials travel through the Chicago area locks and canals annually; and

WHEREAS, The continued operation of Chicago's system of locks and canals is vital to ensure its continued status as the strategic transportation hub of the Midwest; and

WHEREAS, The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources have enacted several steps to prevent Asian carp from entering Lake Michigan, including creating three electronic barriers, eDNA testing, and two fish kills in December of 2009 and June of 2010; and

WHEREAS, Litigation has been pursued by Great Lakes states to order the closure of the locks and canals to try and prevent Asian carp from entering the Great Lakes; and

WHEREAS, The United States Supreme Court has rejected the preliminary injunction to close the Chicago Area Waterway System's locks and canals; and

WHEREAS, In December of 2010, a United States District Court rejected several Great Lakes states' request to shut down the Chicago Area Waterway System; and

WHEREAS, On February 17, 2011, a measure by the United States House of Representatives to close some of the Chicago area locks failed by a vote of 293 "No" to 139 "Yes" votes; and

WHEREAS, Closing the locks would overwhelm the Chicago Metropolitan Water Reclamation District tunnel system and cause massive flooding, affecting more than 3 million people and 1.4 million structures in Chicago and 51 surrounding suburbs; and

WHEREAS, It is estimated that closing the locks would also increase shipping costs for the Illinois agricultural community by more than a half-billion dollars a year; and

WHEREAS, There is no viable alternative to re-routing commerce that travels by barge through the Chicago Area Waterway System; according to the American Waterways Operators, a single barge can carry an amount of liquid cargo, such as asphalt, that would fill 144 semi-trailer trucks or 46 rail cars; the State's rail and highway routes are simply not equipped to make up that difference; and

WHEREAS, With one barge's capacity equal to about 60 trucks, the equivalent of about 571,000 truckloads of cargo entered or left the region by barge last year, enough to go from New York to Los Angeles and back again; and

WHEREAS, According to United States Department of Transportation modeling, truck transportation in the Chicago area accounts for 60% of the commodity flow; the annual addition of 300,000 trucks would result in an additional 848 of nitrogen oxides alone to the air emissions to the Chicago metro area, which is equivalent to at least one natural gas peaker plant in Illinois or about 20,600 residential natural gas furnaces for the year; and

WHEREAS, At a White House "Carp Summit" of the Great Lakes states, the United States Army Corps of Engineers presented a plan to prevent Asian carp from entering Lake Michigan, outlining several scenarios including opening the locks less frequently, testing, and more electronic barriers; and

WHEREAS, The White House is allocating $78.5 million to prevent the Asian carp from gaining access to the Great Lakes; the strategy will call for modifying the lock operations in the Chicago Area Waterway System; and

WHEREAS, Even the temporary interruption of lock traffic would be absolutely devastating to our local, State, and national economy; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-SEVENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we urge the United States Army Corps of Engineers to seek alternatives to the closure of the Chicago Area Waterway System of locks and canals that would not impede commerce; and be it further

RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be sent to the United States Army Corps of Engineers, the United States Coast Guard, the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, the White House, and the members of the Illinois congressional delegation.