3 governors and an aggressive fish: Michigan's chief unhappy with U.S. plan to control carp

A White House meeting about a fish? It happened yesterday, as Govs. Jennifer Granholm of Michigan and Jim Doyle of Wisconsin huddled and talked on the phone with Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn about the threat that Asian carp from the Mississippi River system pose to the fisheries and ecosystems of the Great Lakes. (Associated Press photo by M. Spencer Green: Big carp and smaller white bass in Chicago's Shedd Aquarium)

"Granholm came away from the summit less than satisfied with the results" and the plan for operating the locks in the canal that connects Lake Michigan with the Mississippi watershed, reports the Christian Science Monitor. The Army Corps of Engineers "will open and close [the locks] less frequently, and the water will be treated each time the locks are open to prevent the fish from swimming through to the Lake Michigan side," Mark Guarino writes. Michigan wants the locks permanently closed, but its lawsuit to do that was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court. It wants the court to take another look, noting that on the day the court ruled, the Corps "discovered two DNA samples ... showing that Asian carp had breached Lake Michigan."

The Obama administration's role yesterday was to announce "a $78.5 million commitment to deal with the issue," Guarino reports, with "new water sampling, the construction of a concrete and chain-link fence between the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal and the Des Plaines River, and the construction of a third electric barrier on the canal." Grahholm said the plan's "objectives are not sustainable and that this is a plan to limit damages, not solve the problem." (Read more) (Illustration by Phil Moy, University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute, from Environmental Protection Agency Web page on Asian carp)