Wisconsin, 4 other states sue Chicago water district over Asian Carp

Milwaukee Riverkeeper is part of a coalition of organizations pushing to have the Chicago locks closed to prevent the spread of the invasive Asian Carp into the Great Lakes.

The carp is known to grow up to four feet long and over 100 pounds, devastating native species.

[excerpted from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel]

Wisconsin and four other Great Lakes states filed a lawsuit Monday against the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago to force changes on the Chicago River to halt the advance of the Asian carp into Lake Michigan.

The federal suit, which also names the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as a defendant, asks the court to immediately 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 lawsuit seeks more poisoning and netting programs for Asian carp that may have already breached the electric barrier on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, which is about 35 miles downstream from the Lake Michigan shoreline.

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 over a century ago.

Meanwhile, federal lawmakers who are also pushing for legislation that would force the Corps to expedite its re-separation study held a hearing on the issue last week.

The bill was introduced just days after a 20-pound Asian carp was found June 22 about six miles from the Lake Michigan shoreline - the first confirmed find of an Asian carp above the electric barrier, though water samples taken from the canal system since last fall have repeatedly tested positive for the presence of Asian carp DNA.

Industry leaders are dismissing the idea of putting some type of plug or plugs in the canal system to re-establish the natural separation between the Great Lakes and Mississippi basin. They say that could deal a crippling blow to the barges that ply the canals and industries dependent on the commodities they carry.

"There is no place for knee-jerk reactions, unfounded fear of implausible migrations or demonization of regulators who appropriately take a common-sense approach to a complex issue," said Mark Biel, executive director of the Chemical Industry Council of Illinois, in a news release denouncing last week's Congressional hearing.

Monday's filing comes after a ruling in April by the U.S. Supreme Court to not re-open a decades-old lawsuit over the Chicago River. That suit, initially filed in the 1920s by a Wisconsin-led coalition of Great Lakes states, was based primarily on the effect that the 1900 river reversal had on Great Lakes water levels.

Prior to 1900 the river flowed into Lake Michigan, but with the completion of the Sanitary and Ship Canal the river instead flowed out of the lake. The idea was to channel Chicago's waste away from its drinking water intake pipes in Lake Michigan and flush it into the Mississippi basin.

The court ruled at the time that the diversion could continue, but it left open the possibility for the states that sued to re-open the case if they could demonstrate that the diversion was causing them harm.

A coalition of Great Lakes believed Asian carp swimming up the Chicago canals fit that description, and brought the matter back before the Supreme Court earlier this year. The court didn't buy it, and that is why a fresh, carp-specific lawsuit was filed Monday.

"I am suing to protect the Great Lakes and to protect the Wisconsin jobs that depend on the health of the Great Lakes. The introduction of Asian carp into Lake Michigan will irreversibly damage this important resource. The time for action is now," said Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen.