Michigan Carp Case Goes to Supreme Court

Carp, Michigan, Supreme Court, Detroit, fish, Great Lakes, DNA, Obama, Bush, Chicago River

Michigan state officials are trying to prevent the Asian carp from getting into the Great Lakes, says FreeP:

Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox announced he is filing a lawsuit today, asking the high court to close the Chicago-area locks and waterways leading to the Great Lakes to prevent Asian carp from ruining the $7-billion annual fishing and tourism industry.

“With DNA within six miles of Lake Michigan, now is the time to do it,” Cox said at Cobo Center this morning, even blaming the Bush and Obama administrations – among other public officials – and accusing them of foot-dragging. “They haven’t acted quickly enough.”

For those who don’t know, Michigan has a great deal invested in fishing with about $7 billion in revenue each year. Michigan is also at the top of the unemployment rate list at around 15 percent, says a CNN article.

As a result, the government in Michigan are pretty worried about the prospects of an invasive fish coming in and ruining a big part of the state’s economy, says a Forbes article:

The lawsuit demands that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the state of Illinois and Chicago’s sewer authority take more steps to block the carp during flooding and ultimately to separate the Great Lakes from the Mississippi River watershed.

The Army Corps recently performed maintenance on an electric barrier intended to deter the carp from swimming into the lakes, poisoning fish in a long stretch of waterway to ensure the carp would not enter while the barrier was shut off. But scientists have found carp DNA on the lake side of the barrier, which may mean carp have made it into Lake Michigan.

The Chicago Tribune adds:

The lawsuit comes during a period of heightened anxiety over Asian carp in Illinois, where recent DNA research has hinted that the voracious fish may have bypassed the underwater electric barrier system near Romeoville and could now be within 6 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 can get their hands on. Last week, Illinois was awarded $13 million in federal funds to deal with the carp problem.

In filing suit, Michigan is asking that the court reopen a 100-year 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.

The state wants to close the canal basically, which is why they are making an appeal to the Supreme Court since they feel its a last resort to stopping the damages caused by the fish, says the Christian Science Monitor:

Closing the canal, even temporarily, will create economic disaster for the barging industry and the loss of 400 jobs, says American Waterways Operators (AWO), a trade association representing the tugboat, towboat, and barge industry. Its data show that products ranging from asphalt to coal that are shipped through the Chicago canal generate more than $30 million in revenue for the industry.

Shutting the canals to keep out the Asian carp “is a false choice,” says Lynn Muench, senior vice president of regional advocacy for AWO. The species can enter the water “in other ways beyond navigational channels.”