CHICAGO
— The AP
is reporting that a federal judge on Monday threw out the lawsuit filed by
five states that sought barriers placed in Chicago-area waterways to prevent
Asian carp from invading the Great Lakes. He said, however, “that he would consider
new arguments if the case were filed again.”
Ohio,
Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin claimed in the lawsuit that the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Chicago’s Metropolitan Water Reclamation
District “are causing a public nuisance by failing to physically separate a
network of rivers and canals from Lake Michigan.” They are concerned that if
the carp make it to the Great Lakes they could crowd out native species and
adversely affect the fishing industry, specifically.
U.S.
District Judge John Tharp decided that federal law, which requires the Corps to
keep shipping channels open between Lake Michigan and one of the Chicago
waterways and prohibits constructing dams in any navigable waterway without
Congress’ consent, trumps the lawsuit. He wrote that he was “mindful of, and
alarmed by, the potentially devastating ecological, environmental and economic
consequences that may result from the establishment of an Asian carp population
in the Great Lakes,” but that states need to go through Congress for relief.