Asian carp

News Coverage of Michigan v. Illinois/US in Asian Carp Suit

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

One question might be … why wait until the Supreme Court goes into its holiday recess?

From the Detroit News:

Detroit — Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox is calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to flex its muscle in the fight to keep invasive Asian carp from Lake Michigan. In a press conference this morning, Cox announced his intention to sue the State of Illinois, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago to force them to close off waterways leading to the lake.

His move comes just weeks after authorities poisoned a section of the Chicago Sanitary and Shipping Canal to halt the spread of the carp, which are considered a major threat to the ecosystem of Lake Michigan. 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,” Cox said. “These agencies have not acted quickly enough.”

Cox is calling for:

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Possible Michigan Suit against Illinois re: Asian Carp

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

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.

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