TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. AP) — Michigan asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to close shipping locks near Chicago to prevent Asian carp from invading the Great Lakes and endangering their $7 billion fishery.

State Attorney General Mike Cox filed a lawsuit Monday with the nation’s highest court against Illinois, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago. They operate canals and other waterways that open into Lake Michigan.

Bighead and silver carp from Asia have been detected in those waterways after migrating north in the Mississippi and Illinois rivers for decades.

Officials poisoned a section of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal this month to prevent the carp from getting closer to Lake Michigan while an electrical barrier was taken down for maintenance.

But scientists say DNA found north of the barrier suggest at least some of the carp have gotten through and may be within 6 miles of Lake Michigan. If so, the only other obstacle between them and the lake are shipping locks, which open frequently to grant passage for cargo vessels.

Fifty members of Congress last week joined environmental groups in urging closure of the locks — the same demand made in Michigan’s lawsuit.

“The Great Lakes are an irreplaceable resource,” Cox, who is seeking the Republican gubernatorial nomination in Michigan, said at a news conference in Detroit. “Thousands of jobs are at stake and we will not get a second chance once the carp enter Lake Michigan.”

He likened the fish to “nuclear bombs.”

Cox went directly to the Supreme Court because it handles disputes between states.

Michigan is seeking to reopen a case dating back more than a century, when Missouri filed suit after Chicago reversed the flow of the Chicago River and began sending sewage-fouled Lake Michigan water south toward the Mississippi River.

After that issue was resolved, several Great Lakes states — including Michigan — renewed the suit with a new complaint: Chicago’s diversion of water away from the basin was harming the lakes by lowering water levels.

The high court has ruled on the matter numerous times, setting ceilings on the amount of Lake Michigan water Chicago could divert. The present limit is 2.1 billion gallons per day.

Michigan’s suit argues that continued operation of the locks represents another potential injury to the lakes. It asks the court to immediately order them closed, and to create new barriers to prevent the carp from entering the ship canal from nearby waterways during floods.

Obama administration officials last week pledged $13 million to prevent carp from bypassing the electronic barrier by migrating between the Des Plaines River and the canal.

The lawsuit also asks the Supreme Court to require a study of the Chicago waterway system to define where and how many carp are in those waters and to eradicate them.

Noah Hall, an assistant professor at Wayne State University’s law school, said Michigan has a good chance of prevailing if it can show the potential harm posed by Asian carp would outweigh the benefits of keeping the locks open.

“The carp invasion is a good textbook example of irreparable harm,” Hall said.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office was reviewing the suit and had no immediate comment, spokeswoman Natalie Bauer said.

Metropolitan Water Reclamation District spokeswoman Jill Horist called the lawsuit “unfortunate.”

“It’s unfortunate that there would be an assumption that this would make some positive resolution come sooner than is truly feasible,” Horist said. “Even if the locks were closed there’s still a variety of ways for DNA or Asian carp to enter Lake Michigan.”

Messages left with the Army Corps of Engineers seeking comment were not returned.

Rep. Candice Miller, a Michigan Republican, praised the lawsuit.

“There is nothing more pressing than stopping this aggressive invasive species from entering Lake Michigan and threatening our lake’s environment and all the states’ economies in the Great Lakes Basin,” Miller said.

Environmentalists said closing the locks would be a temporary fix, but the only long-term solution would be restoring the natural separation between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River system.

“The Chicago diversion was a 19th century solution to an environmental problem. Now it’s causing a 21st century emergency,” said Andy Buchsbaum, director of the National Wildlife Federation’s Great Lakes center.

PORT HURON, Mich. (AP) — Great Lakes shipping is winding down a turbulent season that saw freighters making fewer trips to transport fewer commodities.

Dan Gallagher, president of the Port Huron-based Lakes Pilots Association, estimated its 10 captains made 40 percent fewer trips this year than in 2008.

“It’s been a tough year altogether,” said Gallagher, whose association’s members pilot foreign freighters as they travel through the lakes and toward the Atlantic Ocean. “We’re hanging on.”

Glen Nekvasil, vice president of the Cleveland-based Lake Carriers’ Association, said shipments of core products such as iron ore, limestone, grain and coal all declined this year.

“It has been a difficult year,” said Nekvasil, whose members comprise 16 companies with about 65 U.S.-flagged ships. He said about eight of those freighters didn’t sail this year for lack of cargo, while others carried only a handful of shipments before they were laid up again.

Americans “haven’t been buying cars, washing machines and refrigerators,” Nekvasil said. “Ships meet demand for cargo. They don’t generate command for cargo.”

Both Gallagher and Nekvasil told the Times Herald of Port Huron there are signs shipping could rebound in 2010.

Nekvasil said that, as a representative of a trade organization, he isn’t allowed to predict next summer’s success. But, he said: “If the steel industry begins to rebound, that will bring some boats out.

The St. Lawrence Seaway is scheduled to close Dec. 29 and the Soo Locks are set to close in mid-January.

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On the Net:

Lake Carriers’ Association: http://www.lcaships.com/

Lakes Pilots Association: http://www.lakespilots.com/

DETROIT (AP) — The U.S. Coast Guard is preparing for the 2009-2010 Great Lakes icebreaking season.

The Coast Guard’s icebreaking work is designed to help clear the way for commercial vessels on the Great Lakes as well as help the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers with flood mitigation efforts in the region.

The Coast Guard runs what it calls Operation Taconite from Sault Ste. Marie and Operation Coal Shovel from Detroit.

Taconite includes Lake Superior, the St. Marys River, the Straits of Mackinac, Lake Michigan and northern Lake Huron. Coal Shovel includes southern Lake Huron to Lake Erie, Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence Seaway.

The icebreaking tug Penobscot Bay from Bayonne, N.J. is joining eight Great Lakes-based icebreakers for the season.

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On the Net:

U.S. Coast Guard, 9th District: http://www.uscg.mil/d9

Posted 12/21/2009