Supreme Court Refuses To Close Locks To Keep Invasive Carp Out

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to order the closure of shipping locks near Chicago to prevent invasive Asian carp from infesting the Great Lakes.

The high court refused to issue a preliminary injunction that would have immediately cut off a link between the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes basin. Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and New York want a permanent block between the rivers and the lakes to keep out the fish, which have been migrating up the Mississippi and Illinois rivers toward the Great Lakes for decades. The fish have swarmed waterways near Chicago leading to Lake Michigan.

Illinois and the Obama administration oppose the closure of the locks, saying federal agencies are working to keep Asian carp out of the lakes.

Scientists fear that if Asian carp reach the lakes, they could disrupt the food chain and endanger the $7 billion fishery.

The biggest Asian carp can reach 4 feet in length and weigh 100 pounds while consuming up to 40 percent of their body weight daily in plankton, the base of the food chain for Great Lakes fish.

In addition to immediate closure of the shipping locks, the states also wanted a permanent separation between the carp-infested waters and the lakes. That would mean cutting off a link between the Mississippi and Great Lakes basins created more than 100 years ago, when Chicago reversed the flow of the Chicago River and began sending sewage-fouled Lake Michigan water south toward the Mississippi River.

Illinois, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago operate canals and other waterways that open into Lake Michigan.