Carp in the Lake: Supreme Court Declines to Close Locks; New DNA Tests Show Asian Carp in Lake Michigan

Even as the Supreme Court today denied Michigan’s request for a temporary closure of the navigational locks between Chicago waterways and Lake Michigan, the Army Corps of Engineers announced new evidence today that Asian carp are in Lake Michigan.

I just got off a conference call in which the Army Corps of Engineers and Illinois officials admitted that new DNA test results show that Asian carp are present in the Calumet River on the South Side of Chicago and Calumet Harbor in Lake Michigan.  This follows last week’s announcement that the carp are also present north of Chicago, in Wilmette, IL, which is also directly adjacent to Lake Michigan.

The only response that state and federal officials have to this is “stay the course” and “all options are still on the table.”  The agencies want additional funding to work on an electric fish fence that we already know does not work, and they want us to ignore the mounting evidence of a gathering threat that Asian carp are starting to enter the Great Lakes from multiple locations.  No one actually knows how close the Asian carp are to establishing a viable population in or near Lake Michigan.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court weighed in this morning with a one-sentence denial of Michigan’s motion for a preliminary injunction to close the locks and establish short-term barriers to prevent the carp from infiltrating the Lake.  The only words from the Court were these:

“The motion for preliminary injunction is denied.”

The Court provided no further explanation for its denial of Michigan’s request, which had been opposed by Illinois, the U.S. Government, and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD).  Nor did the Court indicate when it would rule on Michigan’s broader request to re-open a lawsuit, which began in the 1920’s when the Great Lakes states sued Illinois over the threats posed by the Chicago Diversion to the health of the Great Lakes ecosystem.

Michigan’s lawsuit thus still awaits further action from the Court.  Such action may not occur until February, after the parties have had additional opportunities to brief the remaining issues.

Michigan’s underlying petition to the Court seeks permanent, long-term relief:  an expedited process to create a permanent separation between the Great Lakes and Mississippi River ecosystems.  We believe that this is the best solution to the threat, and the only real permanent solution that is available.  The separation will require reformulation and modernization of the greater Chicago sewage system and intermodal transportation infrastructure that incorporates waterborne commerce with rail and other surface transportation in the region. 

Governor Jennifer Granholm of Michigan today called on President Obama to hold a White House summit with all eight Great Lakes governors in order to secure the appropriate level of high-level attention that will be required to break through the logjam. 

We support Governor Granholm’s call for a White House summit.  Now is not the time for further delay or finger-pointing, it is time for us to figure out the best way to move forward together toward a real solution.  Solving the Asian carp crisis will require bold, thoughtful, pragmatic, high-level leadership from the Obama Administration and other state and federal leaders to frame this issue appropriately and move it forward expeditiously.  (This could also bring substantial benefits to Chicago, in the form of new public investment in more modern, sustainable transportation and water infrastructure.)

The Army Corps of Engineers is already required by a 2007 law to review such plans for alternatives to their current approach, but they have been slow to get started and are not treating this problem with the urgency that the current crisis demands.  On the call today, the Army Corps announced that they are only getting started now with the interagency scoping process necessary to get this feasibility study started.  And the Army Corps’ latest estimate is that they will not be able to make a final decision until FY 2014! 

That is simply an unacceptable timeframe.  Wildly inappropriate delay has marked this debacle from the time the Asian carp threat first appeared, making a serious problem morph into a full blown emergency … which the Corps still seems unable to acknowledge.   We need a plan for a real solution today, not four years from now.