By Rick Pluta, Michigan Public Radio Network
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkar/local-wkar-884851.mp3
LANSING, MI –
Attorney General Mike Cox says a 90-minute phone conference Wednesday failed to yield an agreement with the federal government on a plan to stop the Asian carp from escaping into Lake Michigan.
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The phone call between Great Lakes states attorneys general and the U-S Justice Department was an effort to settle Michigan's lawsuit before the U-S Supreme Court. Cox wants the government to shut down a Chicago shipping canal to ensure Asian carp don't slip past barriers set up to contain the invasive species.
Cox says a plan offered by the White House falls short because it would not to seal off the Great Lakes from the threat of an Asian carp invasion.
"The plan itself has no sense of urgency," he says.
Cox says the canal is a super-highway for invasive species.
"This is a super-highway that needs to be bombed. It needs to be ripped up. It needs to be closed because it's something that we will not be able to undo once it happens," he adds.
Cox says the negotiations will continue while Michigan's case before the Supreme Court moves forward.