LANSING – Future court actions are not ruled out, but it appeared on Monday the quickest venue for action to prevent Asian carp from moving into the Great Lakes would be Congress after the U.S. Supreme Court again refused to take up motions to close locks connecting the lakes to the Mississippi River. The Carp pose a dangerous threat to the $7 billion annual sport fishing business in the Great Lakes.
Attorney General Mike Cox would not rule out future legal action, said spokesperson Joy Yearout, but he said in a statement that the responsibility for action now lay with President Barack Obama and Congress.
“The fight to protect Michigan’s jobs and environment now falls to President Obama and Congress,” Cox said.
But he also lashed out at Obama for not taking action on the issue earlier.
“While President Obama has turned a blind eye to the millions of Great Lakes residents who do not happen to live in his home state of Illinois, it is now up to him to save thousands of Michigan jobs and our environment,” he said in a statement “Unfortunately, very little of the President’s incomplete plan has even been implemented at this point.”
Sen. Patricia Birkholz (R-Saugatuck), chair of the Senate Natural Resources and Environment Committee, called the court’s decision disappointing.
“I am appalled that the U.S. Supreme Court does not place a greater significance on protecting the Great Lakes,” Birkholz said. “Once the Asian carp reach Lake Michigan, they will cause a path of destruction that will completely devastate our waters. Previous steps taken to stop the fish have not worked. Closing the canal is the only foolproof way to prevent the spread of Asian carp into the Great Lakes.”
Cox and attorneys general in Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Indiana, and the Province of Ontario had asked the high court for a third time to re-open the case that had allowed operation of the Chicago Sanitary and Shipping Canal, arguing that finding DNA from the carp in Lake Michigan constituted new information. The court rejected the argument.
Andy Buchsbaum with the National Wildlife Federation said the key is for all of the states to come together on a solution.
“This is likely to be solved more quickly if all parts of the region pull together,” he said. “It will be hard to address when one state is fighting another.”
And he said the Army Corps of Engineers will need to take some action at least short-term to be sure there is time to implement a longer-term solution.
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