WASHINGTON DC – The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal Monday from Michigan and other states to require the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to take several immediate steps to prevent the introduction of Asian carp into the Great Lakes.
Attorney General Bill Schuette and his colleagues in other states had asked the court to require the corps to install block nets in the Little Calumet and Grand Calumet rivers in Illinois to block pathways between the Mississippi River and Great Lakes basins. They also had asked the court to require the corps to expedite the completion of its study of permanent separation between the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basins, so that the part of the study focused on the Chicago Area Waterway is completed within 18 months, not five years.
“It is our duty to aggressively fight to protect the Great Lakes from invasive species so while I’m disappointed, we will continue forward on all fronts,” Schuette said in a statement.
The court rejected the states’ request in an order that did not provide much detail as to the reason for not hearing the case.
The overall case remains pending at the U.S. District Court with a hearing to come sometime after March 29 on the corps’ motion to dismiss the case.
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