Lawmakers prod feds to heed plan for stopping carp

By JOHN FLESHER
AP Environmental Writer

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Thirty-one members of Congress want to know how the Army Corps of Engineers will use a new report calling for separation of the Great Lakes and Mississippi River watersheds at Chicago to stop migration of Asian carp and other invasive species.

The lawmakers sent a letter Friday to Jo-Ellen Darcy, assistant secretary of the Army for civil works, about the report released this week by the Great Lakes Commission and the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative.

It lays out three options for severing a man-made link between the two systems by placing barriers in Chicago-area rivers and canals at costs ranging from $3.3 billion to $9.5 billion.

The letter asks how the corps will use the report to quicken its own study. A corps spokeswoman had no comment.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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