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Cox will seek court order to halt carp passage to lakes

By Rick Pluta, Michigan Public Radio Network

LANSING, MI – Attorney General Mike Cox will announce today (Mon.) that he is going to court to demand that the U-S Army Corps of Engineers and Illinois authorities do more to stop the Asian carp from reaching the Great Lakes. There is evidence that the carp is now just a few miles from Lake Michigan.

The attorney general has scheduled news conferences in Detroit and Grand Rapids to announce his plans. Cox could demand that shipping locks be closed until the operators of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal come up with a permanent plan to ensure the Asian carp does not escape into Lake Michigan. That's opposed by shipping companies that use the canal, but Cox says the voracious carp poses too big of a threat to the $7 billion Great Lakes recreational and commercial fishing industries.

The attorney general will likely take his case directly to the U-S Supreme Court, which still has jurisdiction over a century-old water diversion case. The federal government has also committed $13 billion to efforts to keep the carp from reaching Lake Michigan.

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