The Carp'll Get You!

By Joel Hood and James Janega

December 22, 2009
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Reporting from Chicago - The fight to keep invasive Asian carp out of the Great
Lakes reached the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, as Michigan's attorney general
filed a lawsuit seeking closure of two shipping locks near Chicago.

Claiming Illinois officials have been lax, Michigan Atty. Gen. Mike Cox asked
justices for immediate action to seal off the most direct route for fish
entering Lake Michigan, in hopes of protecting the region's $7-billion fishing
industry.

"We don't want to have to look back years later . . . and say, 'What was the
matter with us? We should have done something,' " Cox said. Closing the locks,
he said, was "the easiest, the most reliable and the most effective" short-term
step officials could take.

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn declined to say whether he favored closing the locks,
but added: "We have to protect the ecology of the Great Lakes; we also have
many, many jobs that depend on shipping, so there has to be a proper balance.

"There are ways of preventing the carp from getting into the Great Lakes without
strangling our economy."

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which operates the locks and is a codefendant
in the lawsuit, declined to comment.

In addition to closing the locks, the lawsuit seeks creation of barriers to
prevent carp from escaping the Des Plaines River or neighboring waterways during
flooding. Cox also called for a study of Chicago's water system to understand
the size and scope of the Asian carp population.

The lawsuit comes during a period of heightened anxiety over recent DNA research
that hinted the voracious fish may have bypassed an underwater electric barrier
system -- and could now be within six miles of Lake Michigan. In August, Quinn
signed into law a $3-million program giving universities and researchers
authority to fish as many varieties of Asian carp as they could find. Last week,
Illinois was awarded $13 million in federal funds to deal with the carp problem.

In filing the lawsuit, Michigan was asking that the high court reopen a
100-year-old case sparked by Chicago's reversing the flow of the Chicago River
to send its sewage and human waste away from Lake Michigan and toward the
Mississippi River. A number of states around the Great Lakes complained that
Chicago's manipulation of the waterways was harming the lakes. The courts
responded by limiting the amount of water Chicago could divert each day.

Hundreds of millions of dollars in commercial barge traffic pass through the
area each year, with much of it proceeding to harbors in Lake Michigan, said the
American Waterways Operators, a trade group for the barge industry. Thousands of
recreational boaters also use the locks.

The Alliance for the Great Lakes, which recently studied permanently closing
Chicago's shipping canals over fear of invasive species, said there was too much
at risk to dismiss closing locks entirely.

"That canal is becoming a liability because it's putting the future of the Great
Lakes at risk," said Joel Brammeier, chief executive officer of the alliance.
"Right now, it's every tool in the toolbox, whatever it takes to keep the carp
from getting into the Great Lakes."






Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-a...,7502213.story

Groups laud Cox in carp fight
AG takes bid to close Chicago-area locks to U.S. Supreme Court
Jim Lynch / The Detroit News
Detroit -- Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox's attempt to enlist the U.S.
Supreme Court in keeping Asian carp out of Lake Michigan is a two-pronged
approach that is drawing support from environmental groups and legal scholars.

Cox filed a lawsuit targeting the State of Illinois, the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago. He
is seeking the court's intervention to close all waterways and canals leading
into Lake Michigan -- pathways that could allow the voracious Asian carp to gain
a fin-hold in the Great Lakes.

In addition, Cox is asking the Supreme Court to revise the 80-year-old consent
decree in Wisconsin v. Illinois. That decision limited the amount of water
Chicago could divert from Lake Michigan to carry sewage down the Sanitary and
Shipping Canal, because the amount Chicago was taking from Lake Michigan was
causing harm to other states through lowered lake levels.

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Cox is banking on that harm argument to get the courts to address the diversion
once more.

"I think (Cox) is doing the single-most effective thing that the people of
Michigan could ask their attorney general to do about this issue," said Noah
Hall, an environmental law expert at Oakland University. "He's taking very
thoughtful, sound and aggressive legal action."

Asian carp are an invasive species brought to the United States to control algae
growth in the Southeast. Two decades ago, flooding turned the fish loose in the
Mississippi River and they have been moving north ever since. The carp pose a
major risk to the Great Lakes -- the fish can grow to well over 4 feet long and
more than 100 pounds.

They devour plants and plankton that are a food source for native fish,
eventually leading to drastic reductions in those species. Michigan officials
see the carp as a threat to the $7 billion commercial and sport fishing industry
in the Great Lakes.

Cox's announcement Monday came just weeks after authorities poisoned a section
of the Chicago Sanitary and Shipping Canal to halt the spread of the carp. That
project produced one Asian carp above an electrical barrier designed to keep the
fish out of Lake Michigan.

"With the finding of (Asian carp) DNA within 6 miles of Lake Michigan recently
.... quite simply, now is the time," said Cox, a Republican who is running for
governor of Michigan. "These agencies have not acted quickly enough."

Andy Buchsbaum, director of the National Wildlife Federation's Great Lakes
Center, applauded Cox's attempts to link the carp issue with the original
Chicago diversion. In 1930, the court ruled that Chicago's diversion of water
had to be reduced since it was having a negative impact on other states by
reducing water levels.

"That diversion was originally designed to protect the Great Lakes, but now it's
doing the opposite." Buchsbaum said. By demonstrating the Asian carp's potential
harm to all of the lakes, he added, the court could be compelled to force
Illinois to close its water routes to Lake Michigan, at least in the short term.

Earlier this month, Cox broached the subject of Supreme Court involvement with
the issue but did not offer details. On Monday, Hall said quick intervention by
the court is not unheard of.

Lynne Whelan, a spokeswoman with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources,
declined to comment on the lawsuit. Asked if state officials would soon make a
decision concerning closure of the locks and canals leading to Lake Michigan,
she said: "There is no schedule or timeline."

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