LANSING ? Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette and his colleagues in most of the other Great Lakes states have said they are expanding a coalition to try to seal off a connection between the lakes and the Mississippi River that has allowed for invasive species to travel between the waterways.

While the issue of preventing the Asian Carp from getting into the Great Lakes via the locks at the Chicago Canal has drawn the most attention, the attorneys general said a paper released last month by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said there were 40 specific species that could travel either way through the canal. Of those, 30 species were at greater risk of traveling from the Great Lakes, such as zebra mussels, into the Mississippi waterway.

“This is not just a Great Lakes issue, it is a national issue,” Schuette said in a statement. By joining together and expanding the scope of the argument he said the attorneys general hoped to put greater pressure on the federal government to close to locks between the canal and Lake Michigan.

Last week, the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals based in Chicago rejected the plea by Michigan and other states to close the locks. Illinois had argued doing so would create both economic and environmental damage. But the court also said it recognized there was a danger of the Asian carp getting into the Great Lakes and said if it felt the federal government was acting too slowly in the issue that it may revisit the question.

Joining Mr. Schuette in the effort is Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelly, Wisconsin Attorney General J. B. Van Hollen and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan was not listed as joining the group.

The effort did win the praise of the National Wildlife Federation, which said finding a permanent solution to the transfer of invasive species between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River through Illinois is critical to waters all across the nation.

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