Asian Carp Barrier Down For 13 Minutes

5/6/12 – An electronic barrier near Chicago that’s supposed to keep the invasive Asian carp out of Lake Michigan had a 13-minute power outage this past week. The Army Corps of Engineers confirmed the outage after it was first made public by U-S Senator Debbie Stabenow and House member David Camp, both of Michigan. The outage happened Wednesday afternoon. The two of the three barriers on a Chicago shipping canal were running at the time – and both failed. Backup generators were activated, but they failed to start up immediately due to a power surge. The barriers are almost 40 miles away from Lake Michigan. The lawmakers said the Army Corps and other officials are investigating the outage. Stabenow said the barriers are the only thing standing between the Asian carp and the Great Lakes. And had the carp made it through during the outage, she said it would have been quote, “devastating to our economy and our way of life.”