A plan to build a transfer station in a Wisconsin lake would allow boats to bypass a lock on the Fox River, which critics say could attract invasive species to inland waters.
Plans by the Fox River Navigational System Authority call for the construction of a system to move boats around the lock between Lake Michigan and Lake Winnebago.
Under state law, the existing lock must remain closed as a precaution to stop invasive species in Lake Michigan from spreading to the prized fishery of the Lake Winnebago system. But the authority aims to get around that restriction with a $3.8 million project that would hoist boats out of the river, spray them under high pressure and plop them into a 110-degree bath for 10 minutes before they are returned to the Fox, according to a report in the (Milwaukee) Journal Sentinel.
