Illinois Officials Present United Front Against Lawsuit, Carp

NY Times

Federal and state officials from Illinois on Tuesday defended their efforts to ward off Asian carp, a voracious, nonnative fish that could threaten the ecosystem of the Great Lakes, even as they reported new evidence that the fish may be near Lake Michigan.

Facing a legal challenge over the issue from Michigan, which is demanding the closing of Chicago-area waterways that lead to the lakes, the leaders from Illinois met at an aquarium beside Lake Michigan and sought to present a united front.

Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, said that closing the waterways, where signs of the carp have been found, could cause economic problems for the shipping software industry as well as flood thousands of homes.

“We are not in denial about the threat of this invasive species,” Mr. Durbin said. “The purpose of this meeting is to make it clear that we are doing things proactively, and we will continue to.”

Still, during the meeting on Tuesday, officials from the Army Corps of Engineers acknowledged that genetic material from the Asian carp had been found in a channel beyond an elaborate barrier system that was designed to stop their journey north through the Mississippi River system and into the Great Lakes. Traces of the fish were found in samples gathered in October at a pumping station in Wilmette, Ill., a suburb north of Chicago that is not far from Lake Michigan, officials said.

That marked the second time genetic material from the carp was discovered beyond the barrier. The first finding, in a canal south of Chicago, was announced in November. Live fish have yet to be discovered past the barrier. The barrier system, which acts like a powerful electric fence, has been a major part of efforts since 2002 to prevent the spread of the carp, a big, hungry fish that, scientists say, can take over an ecosystem by eating the plankton needed by native species.

“This has been an urgent situation for a number of years that has evolved into an imminent crisis,” said Henry Henderson, the director of the Midwest program for the Natural Resources Defense Council. He called the response at Tuesday’s meeting “surprisingly lackadaisical.”

In December, the State of Michigan filed a lawsuit against the State of Illinois. Other Great Lakes states, including Minnesota, New York, Ohio and Wisconsin, and the Canadian province of Ontario have supported Michigan’s effort. Among other things, Michigan has called for an injunction to close the locks along the Chicago-area waterways. The Supreme Court is scheduled to consider the issue during a private conference on Friday.

Michigan’s attorney general, Mike Cox, a Republican who is running for governor, said he was disappointed that Illinois officials appeared more concerned with local interests than the health of the Great Lakes.

“It is distressing that inaction on the part of a state with only a few miles of shoreline is threatening the economy and ecology of Michigan and every other state in the Great Lakes basin,” Mr. Cox said in a statement.

Senator Durbin said the lawsuit was unhelpful. “Let’s not meet in the courtroom,” he said. “Let’s meet in the halls of Congress to find a way to come up with a solution.”