Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene and order the closing of the locks between the Chicago Sanitary and Shipping Canal from Lake Michigan in order to prevent the Asian carp from reaching the Great Lakes, where experts predict they would do incalculable damage to the delicate ecosystem of the lakes. The Detroit News reports:

Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox’s attempt to enlist the U.S. Supreme Court in keeping Asian carp out of Lake Michigan is a two-pronged approach that is drawing support from environmental groups and legal scholars.

Cox filed a lawsuit targeting the State of Illinois, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago. He is seeking the court’s intervention to close all waterways and canals leading into Lake Michigan — pathways that could allow the voracious Asian carp to gain a fin-hold in the Great Lakes.

The Supreme Court could do this by amending a consent decree that the court issued in a lawsuit between Great Lakes states 80 years ago. In that case, Wisconsin sued Illinois because the canal mentioned above was diverting too much water from Lake Michigan, lowering lake levels for other states.

The court entered a consent decree limiting the amount of water that the city of Chicago could divert for the sanitary and shipping canal. Cox is asking the court to amend that decree because the circumstances have changed and the risk to the Great Lakes is far greater now than it was 80 years ago.