Michigan Sues to Prevent Spread of Asian Carp

[excerpted from the Journal-Sentinel]

Traverse City, Mich. — Michigan asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to close shipping locks near Chicago to prevent Asian carp from invading the Great Lakes and endangering their $7 billion fishery.

State Attorney General Mike Cox filed a lawsuit Monday with the nation's highest court against Illinois, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago. They operate canals and other waterways that open into Lake Michigan.

Bighead and silver carp from Asia have been detected in those waterways after migrating north in the Mississippi and Illinois rivers for decades.

Wisconsin has no immediate plans to file suit.

"We are reviewing what Michigan filed and we continue to look at all possible options," Bill Cosh, a spokesman for the attorney general's office, said Monday.

Officials poisoned a section of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal this month to prevent the carp from getting closer to Lake Michigan while an electrical barrier was taken down for maintenance.

But scientists say DNA found north of the barrier suggests at least some of the carp have gotten through and might be within six miles of Lake Michigan. If so, the only other obstacle between them and the lake are shipping locks, which open frequently to grant passage for cargo vessels.

Fifty members of Congress last week joined environmental groups in urging that the locks be closed - the same demand made in Michigan's lawsuit.

"The Great Lakes are an irreplaceable resource," Cox, who is seeking the Republican gubernatorial nomination in Michigan, said at a news conference in Detroit. "Thousands of jobs are at stake and we will not get a second chance once the carp enter Lake Michigan."

He likened the fish to "nuclear bombs."

Cox went directly to the Supreme Court because it handles disputes between states.

State could join lawsuit

On Friday, Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said the Department of Justice is considering joining Michigan in the lawsuit.

"This is a chance that we have . . . to nip something in the bud," Van Hollen said. "If you miss these opportunities, sometimes you've missed them forever."

Van Hollen said then he didn't know how long he would take to decide what to do.

"We want to make sure that we gather all the facts that we have about the Asian carp themselves," he said. "We want to gather all the facts we can about the causation and we want to look into what legal remedies or solutions there are. And we want to make sure we do a diligent and informed job before we launch into anything too hastily."

If Wisconsin files a lawsuit, it will likely do it in conjunction with Michigan, he said.

"We're both pursuing the same cause. It would seem foolish to pursue separate tracks if at all possible," he said.

Wisconsin officials have discussed the issue with other Great Lakes states, but Michigan and Wisconsin are treating the matter most urgently, Van Hollen said.

Michigan is seeking to reopen a case dating back more than a century, when Missouri filed suit after Chicago reversed the flow of the Chicago River and began sending sewage-fouled Lake Michigan water south toward the Mississippi River.

After that issue was resolved, several Great Lakes states - including Michigan - renewed the suit with a new complaint: Chicago's diversion of water from the basin was harming the lakes by lowering water levels.

The high court has ruled on the matter numerous times, setting ceilings on the amount of Lake Michigan water Chicago could divert. The present limit is 2.1 billion gallons per day.

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