Could improvements in Chicago waterways invite unwelcome guests? | |
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For close to five decades, invasive carp have overrun huge swaths of the Mississippi River Basin. Yet the hardy, oversized and voracious silver carp and bighead carp stopped about 40 miles southeast of Chicago and haven’t gone any farther. Now, scientists may have discovered the reason why: Chicago’s polluted water. |
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A new study published Friday in the journal Scientific Reports found the silver carp may have stopped advancing upriver due to contaminants in the Chicago Area Waterway System, the network of canals and rivers that make barge traffic possible between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River and absorb the outflow of the city’s combined sewer system. |
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