(AP) -- Michigan's assistant attorney general says the threat of Asian carp to the Great Lakes is at a "biological tipping point."
Robert Reichel (RY'-kul) spoke Monday during the first hearing in a multistate lawsuit about Asian carp.Five states want to close locks and install barriers to keep the voracious fish from populating the Great Lakes.
Reichel tells Judge Robert M. Dow Jr. in Chicago that the waterways have become a "carp highway."
The states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota and Pennsylvania have asked the court to order immediate and long-term solutions.
But Department of Justice attorney Maureen Rudolph says Congress has given the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers discretion in how to deal with the problem. She says lock closure would hurt commercial traffic on waterways.
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