From the Freep via How Appealing:
Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox plans to file a federal lawsuit, possibly in the U.S. Supreme Court, as soon as the paperwork is done to try to shut down canal locks leading to Lake Michigan, through which Asian carp could escape into the Great Lakes.
“Our attorneys are working on it as we speak” and will continue through the weekend, Cox spokesman John Sellek said Saturday.
The legal action is to be filed in federal court, but Sellek couldn’t give a precise timetable. It also could be filed directly in the U.S. Supreme Court or under a decades-old federal case concerning the diversion of water from the Great Lakes through the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. In 1925, the federal government challenged Chicago’s right to divert water from the Great Lakes, through the canal, without consulting its neighbors, including Canada. Several Great Lakes states, including Michigan, also filed lawsuits arguing that the water diversion through the canal could lead to economic losses.
Meanwhile, a team that includes Illinois and federal officials is to make a decision after this weekend on whether to close the O’Brien lock, 7 miles from Lake Michigan and well past the electric barrier meant to keep Asian carp out. DNA testing hasshown the presence of carp just below that lock. Tests for carp near two other locks leading directly to Lake Michigan have been negative so far.
Cameron Davis, Great Lakes adviser to the Environmental Protection Agency, said Saturday that the O’Brien lock was closed Friday while fishermen use electroshock to stun fish there, hunting for live Asian carp. That is to continue through the weekend, and a decision about keeping the lock closed is to come after that, Davis told the Free Press. One bighead carp was found miles downstream Thursday during a mass fish kill.
Closing just one lock would not be sufficient, Sellek said. One thing that could stop a lawsuit is immediate and significant action that would assure Michigan that the lakes are safe, Sellek said.
Davis had no comment on a potential lawsuit: “We’ll let the lawyers handle that,” he said.
Barge operators are upset about even a temporary closure of the canal and O’Brien lock because they need the locks, including the O’Brien lock, open to transport salt, home heating oil and other products for winter to cities around Chicago. Some supplies may not get through, the American Waterways Operators said.
Sellek said Michigan’s greatest concern is the impact of carp on the Great Lakes’ $7-billion fishing industry.
“This is our greatest natural resource, bar none, and it may not be repairable if the fish breach the canal,” he said.
Turtle Talk 