LANSING, Mich., Dec. 6 (UPI) -- Michigan's attorney general said he plans to file a lawsuit to try to shut canal locks leading to Lake Michigan to keep Asian carp out of the Great Lakes.
Closing just one lock on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal would not be sufficient, Attorney General Mike Cox's spokesman, John Sellek, told the Detroit Free Press.
The suit is to be filed in federal court and could possibly be filed directly in the Supreme Court based on a decades-old federal case over water being diverted from the Great Lakes through the canal, the newspaper said.
But immediate and significant action assuring Michigan the lakes are safe could stop the planned suit, Sellek said.
Barge operators do not want even a temporary closure of the canal and locks because they need the locks open for transporting salt, home heating oil and other winter-related products to cities around Chicago, the Free Press said.
Michigan's biggest concern is the negative impact of carp on the Great Lakes' $7 billion fishing industry, Sellek said.
"This is our greatest natural resource, bar none, and it may not be repairable if the fish breach the canal," Sellek said.
