SCOTUS To Consider Carp Case On Friday

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Jan 12, 2010 3:20PM

The U.S. Supreme Court has set this Friday, January 15, as the day it will consider the lawsuit against the state of Illinois to close the locks on Chicago-area waterways to prevent the spread of Asian carp into the Great Lakes. The Court will consider the case in closed conference. The lawsuit was filed by the state of Michigan with Minnesota, Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, and New York jumping on board. Even the Canadian province of Ontario is getting involved. The SCOTUS was originally slated to take up the carp case last Friday but delayed it for a week.

Michigan is arguing that leaving the shipping canals and locks open, allowing the Asian Carp to get into the Great Lakes, would greatly damage the ecology of the Great Lakes as well as the economy of the Great Lake states, particularly in the areas of commercial and sport fishing. The State of Illinois - along with the City of Chicago, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Chicago, and the federal government - says that closing the locks will greatly harm Chicago's economy and wouldn't necessarily prevent the spread of the carp into the Great Lakes. Minnesota Public Radio reports:

Michigan contends it will suffer a serious blow to its economy if the fishery collapses, while Chicago-area shipping interests that rely on the canals argue they will bear a similar hardship if they close.

Closing the canals would block well over a billion dollars worth of goods each year, said Anne Davis Burns, vice president of public affairs and communications for the American Waterways Operators. The group is a national trade association for the American tugboat, tow-boat and barge industry.

"We see that as a potential man-made disaster for the Great Lakes and the Midwest region," Burns said.

The SCOTUS could issue its ruling as early as Friday afternoon (Monday is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, a federal holiday). The SCOTUS will either grant Michigan's request for a temporary injunction to close the locks, set a date for open hearings, or dismiss the suit.