Carp Suit Heading to Court

Milwaukee Riverkeeper, along with countless other environmental groups have been demanding that immediate action be taken against the invasive Asian Carp, which can grow to over 100 pounds and wreak havoc on our Great Lakes' ecosystem.  

Milwaukee Riverkeeper is demanding immediate closure of navigational locks that separate Chicago rivers from Lake Michigan.

Wisconsin has signed on with other Great Lakes States to force Chicago to do just that.  The court case, filed against the Army Corps of Engineers and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, will force the locks closed except in emergency situations.

More information can be found below.

[excerpted from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel]

The lawsuit filed by a coalition of Great Lakes states to force the government to do more to protect Lake Michigan from the advancing Asian carp heads to federal court in Chicago next week.

Testimony will be heard Monday, according to a spokesman for Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen.

The suit, which names the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago as defendants, is asking the court to order shut two lakeside navigation locks - except in emergency situations, such as big storms when the locks are opened as a safety valve to prevent flooding in the Chicago area.

The suit also demands that the corps fast-track a study looking at options for reconstructing the separation between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River basin that the Chicago canals destroyed more than a century ago.

In addition to testimony Monday, two days have been set aside the following week for the court to hear testimony if it finds the plaintiffs' arguments persuasive, according to a spokesman for Van Hollen.

Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania are the plaintiffs in the suit, which was filed after news in June that an Asian carp had been found within six miles of Lake Michigan, well above the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal's electric barrier that was built to keep the fish out of the lake.

Illinois officials and industry leaders have strongly resisted closing the busy navigation locks as a stop-gap measure to put a physical barrier between the over-sized carp and Lake Michigan. They argue that the closures won't effectively stop the carp, but they will devastate the tour boat industry, as well as barge operators and the industries that depend on the bulk goods they carry.

The plaintiffs acknowledge a lock closure would be disruptive, but they say the risk of not doing anything is too great for the region to bear.

"In the short term, we want certain locks closed, effective barriers created to prevent continued fish migration, and Asian carp killed that have already passed the barrier system," Van Hollen said in a news release. "Long term, we think the best solution is the one nature once provided: the physical separation (of) the Great Lakes basin and the Mississippi River systems."

Barge industry advocates say the suit is "without merit" and noted that the U.S. Supreme Court this year already declined to take up the matter.

"The U.S. District Court should deal with this litigation just as previous courts have - throw the case out," said Mark Biel, executive director of the Chemical Industry Council of Illinois.

The suit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois because the Chicago Reclamation District is named as a defendant.