By Rick Pluta, Michigan Public Radio Network
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkar/local-wkar-913640.mp3
LANSING, MI – Michigan and four other states are asking a federal judge in Illinois to shut down the Chicago shipping locks as an emergency measure to keep invasive Asian carp from reaching the Great Lakes.
The US Supreme Court has already refused to shut down the locks, but Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox says the need for action has become more urgent since then. Last month a 20 pound Bighead carp was found in the canal beyond an electric barrier that was supposed to contain the fish.
"It's sort of like where there's one cockroach, there's more cockroaches," Cox said.
Cox's lawsuit asks a judge to shut down the canal and order the US Army Corps of Engineers to use nets and poison to contain the Asian carp until a permanent solution is developed. Cox, Governor Granholm and other Michigan officials say that should include a physical separation of the Great Lakes and Mississippi River systems, but that's opposed by the Obama administration because of the burden it would create on Great Lakes shipping and the economy of the Chicago area.