As far as I know, there's only one business upstream of this lock that utilizes barges, so the economic viability of the lock and dam was already in question. Pleasure boats use it a lot though, so it's closer will inconvenience some people.IMADreamer wrote:I agree, but there is no way that would have happened. To many commodities travel by barge on the Illinois. Closing the Mississippi River off in Minnesota does't really hurt barge traffic so it's a safe move. Congress can say "hey look we are saving the world!" While the AG, Coal, and Barge lobbies can be happy about it.pioneer98 wrote:So they are going to close it to protect Minnesota but the rest of us have to deal with it? OK.
They should have closed off the Illinois River to keep them confined to Lake Michigan.
Also, I'm reposting this because I think it's important:
they should close the Illinois River to keep them out of Lake Michigan. once they're in Lake Michigan, all the Great Lakes are screwed. I believe they got into the Mississippi when a fish farm in Arkansas was flooded some years ago.