Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal is where last stand against Asian carp is being made with electric fish barrier.

---

Supreme Court Refuses to Close Ship Canal; Carp DNA Found in Lake Michigan

Five Great Lakes States "At War" With Illinois, Obama Administration

January 23, 2010
By: Dave Rogers

The Great Lakes are at war, legally, with the State of Illinois and the Obama Administration over the threat of Asian carp.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm is calling for a White House summit of Great Lakes governors to address the legal logjam blocking carp control efforts.

The U.S. Supreme Court today refused to hear a suit seeking to immediately close specific locks, create new barriers and action to permanently separate the carp-infested waterways from the Great Lakes.

"If it gets in the Great Lakes, the Asian carp could destroy the Michigan ecology; destroy the Great Lakes, and hurt our economy," Atty. Gen. Mike Cox said.

Shipping interests, meanwhile charge that closing the locks will ruin the area economy without definitely halting the spread of the carp. The group said the Chicago canal is not the only waterway connection between the Mississippi and the Great Lakes.

A trade group also complains that the proposed closure could cost up to 400 jobs and massive loss of business.

Environmental harm would occur, the group asserts, because reduction of ship traffic will necessarily increase air emissions from trucks and rail.

Michigan officials say the carp may already be in Lake Michigan and could spread rapidly, decimating the $7 billion fishing and recreational economy of the Great Lakes.

The legal action sought a shut down of Chicago's shipping canal that connects the Mississippi River to the lakes.

Michigan and four other Great Lakes states -- Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio and New York -- are united in efforts to keep the Asian carp from reaching the Great Lakes via the canal.

Governor Jennifer Granholm is disappointed by the court's ruling, and says the carp cannot be allowed to reach Lake Michigan.

"The only way to do that right now, as far as I know, is to shut down the locks and then devise a third electronic barrier, an ecological barrier. The bottom line is it cannot continue," says Granholm.

Asian carp up to four feet and 100 pounds starve other fish species by eating all the food resource in an eco-system.

Lynn Muench, vice president of The American Waterways Operators, a shipping industry trade group, praised the court's lack of action: "Without waterway transportation in the Chicago area, it would have immediately started putting more trucks on the highways or put people out of business. So we see this as a good move."

Muench suggests a positive outcome from the court's reluctance to act, hoping the decision will induce the parties to work together and reach a solution.

"We can find a way to make sure navigation continues to move and keep the fish out of the Lakes, but that's only going to happen with collaboration. It will not happen with a lawsuit," says Muench.