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Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Environment - Carp suit heading to court: Federal testimony will start Monday

From a story yesterday by Dan Egan of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that begins:

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.

Note that Indiana, which appears to have been on both sides of this issue, is not a party.

The Journal-Sentinel has collected its past Great Lakes environmental stories in a special section headed "Great Lakes, Great Peril." They note that experts have forecast this will be the century of water.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on August 18, 2010 07:59 AM
Posted to Environment