CHICAGO -- Attorneys for and against closing Chicago-area shipping locks to stop the spread of Asian carp are making their final pitches to a federal judge.
Oral arguments Monday are the last step before Judge Robert Dow decides the issue.
Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin say the action would ensure the invasive fish won't overrun the Great Lakes and devastate a $7 billion-a-year fishing industry.
But the city of Chicago, barge companies and others counter that closing the locks would undermine flood-control measures and cost businesses billions of dollars.
Dow heard witness testimony in September.
The states say carp could enter Lake Michigan from Chicago waterways at any time, so Dow could rule soon after oral arguments.
The Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians is also a part of the lawsuit. The group filed the first motion by a tribe to join the litigation last month.
The Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians filed a motion to join Michigan and the Great Lakes states as an intervening plaintiff.
A portion of the Brief filed by the Tribe is below:
Historically, fishing played a central role in the spiritual and cultural framework of Native American life. As the Supreme Court noted more than a hundred years ago, access to fish and wildlife was "not much less necessary to the existence of the Indians than the atmosphere they breathed." United States v. Winans, 198 U.S. 371, 381 (1905). Not only are the Great Lakes fish culturally important to the Tribes, these communities depend upon fisheries resources for their livelihoods. Moreover, by virtue of the supremacy clause (Article VI, clause 2) of the Constitution, Indian Tribes have a property right in treaty-reserved fishery resources that is paramount to the other economic interests cited by Defendants in defense of the relief requested by Plaintiffs. See Grand Case: 1:10-cv-04457 Document #: 122-7 Filed: 08/31/10 Page 1 of 6 PageID #:4813
