Mich. files suit in US high court over Asian carp

[SpartanDem]

Source: AP

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. AP) — Michigan asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to sever a century-old connection between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River system to prevent Asian carp from invading the lakes and endangering their $7 billion fishery.

State Attorney General Mike Cox filed a lawsuit 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.

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.



Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gPBBiKJKfp1MbkPXxJCnNjnZCCrQD9CNUR082

[DeSwiss]

1. It's too late.

We've adulterated ourselves with capitalism.

K&R

[cyclezealot]

2. What I wonder . Why not close the Ill. & Michigan lock.

On the Illinois River.. Connecting Lake Michigan and the Mississippi.. Is it really used all that much anymore.? Destroying all the Great Lakes fish. Shut it down. Could always transfer barge and lake cargo by hand if necessary.. Rather than destroy the Great Lakes..

[dmr]

5. That's part of the law suit

http://www.record-eagle.com/statenews/local_story_356074153.html

Published: December 22, 2009 07:40 am
State files suit over Asian carp

By JOHN FLESHER
AP environmental writer
- snip -
The lawsuit asks for the locks and waterways to be closed immediately as a stopgap measure, echoing a call by 50 members of Congress and environmental groups last week. But the suit goes further, also requesting a permanent separation between the carp-infested waters and the lakes.

That would mean cutting off a link between the Mississippi and Great Lakes basins created more than 100 years ago, when Chicago reversed the flow of the Chicago River and began sending sewage-fouled Lake Michigan water south toward the Mississippi River.

- snip -
He likened the notorious fish to "nuclear bombs." The biggest Asian carp can reach 4 feet in length and weigh 100 pounds while consuming up to 40 percent of their body weight daily in plankton, the base of the Great Lakes food chain.

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

Michigan is seeking to reopen a case dating back to 1900, when Missouri filed suit against Chicago over its re-engineering of the river.

After that issue was resolved, several Great Lakes states -- including Michigan -- renewed the suit with a new complaint: Chicago's diversion of water away 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.

Michigan's suit argues that continued operation of the locks represents another potential injury to the lakes. It asks the court to immediately order them closed, and to create new barriers to prevent the carp from entering the ship canal from nearby waterways during floods.

Obama administration officials last week pledged $13 million to prevent carp from bypassing the electronic barrier by migrating between the Des Plaines River and the canal.

- snip -

Noah Hall, an assistant professor at Wayne State University's law school, said Michigan has a good chance of prevailing if it can show the potential harm posed by Asian carp would outweigh the benefits of keeping the locks open.

"The carp invasion is a good textbook example of irreparable harm," Hall said.

- more at link -

[Blandocyte]

3. The carp are invading!

It would be a shame to see the Great Lakes go to carp. I doubt that there's much to be done to stop it; may slow 'em down. Poisoning a canal seems like it might pose some blowback problems.

I don't know many who eat carp. Some say you can smoke them, but I think you'd need a hella big pipe for that.

:)

[formercia]

4. Ahh, quit carping.

The smell of burning fish ain't that bad.

When times are tough, y'all smokes what you can git.