Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Third Time’s Not A Charm: U.S. Supreme Court Again Denies Request to Stop Asian Carp by Codi Yeager

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court refused a petition from Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. The petition had asked that the court order further action by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to stop Asian carp from reaching the Great Lakes. If granted, the injunction would have required the placement of preventative nets in the Grand Calumet and Little Calumet rivers in Chicago. It would also have forced the Corps of Engineers to speed up its study — which is currently scheduled for completion in 2015 — on ways to permanently keep Asian carp and other invasive species out of the watershed.

This is the third time that the court has denied an injunction for the Asian carp case. A lawsuit between the states and the Corps of Engineers and the Chicago Water District is still pending in federal district court. 

Despite the Supreme Court denial, Great Lakes states are pursuing several other avenues to stop the carp.

“This is not the end of anything,” Nils Frederiksen, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General, told Circle of Blue. “The underlying legal case goes on, the cooperative efforts by the states go on, the work by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers goes on. The Supreme Court decision to deny cert (writ of certiorari) doesn’t end this case.”

Frederiksen added that the decision was not surprising because of the pending district court case, a sentiment echoed by Dana Brueck, communications officer for the Wisconsin Department of Justice. “The decision is disappointing but not unexpected. Wisconsin and its partner Great Lakes states now will press forward to litigate the merits of the case, including seeking a permanent remedy to keep Asian carp out of the Great Lakes,” Brueck wrote in a statement to Circle of Blue.

Asian carp are a Eurasian fish that escaped aquaculture facilities in the southern United States in the 1970s. Since then, they have spread throughout the Mississippi River Basin, reaching the proximity of Chicago, which some say is the gateway to the Great Lakes watershed, where they could wreak havoc on the $US 7 billion sport-fishing industry by out-competing native species. Carp DNA has been detected in Chicago-area waterways, and one bighead carp was found on the Lake Michigan side of an electric barrier that is meant to keep the fish out. 

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