Sen. Stabenow: Army Corps’ Refusal to Follow Law, Submit Complete Asian Carp Plan ‘Unacceptable’
U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow, author of the Stop Invasive Species Act that was recently signed into law by President Obama, made the following statement today after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it will not complete its plan to stop Asian carp entry into the Great Lakes by 2013 as Stabenow's new law requires:
"The Army Corps of Engineers' refusal to follow the law and submit a complete plan to stop Asian carp is completely unacceptable," said Stabenow. "Temporary fixes have proven inadequate, with evidence of Asian carp now being detected in the Great Lakes. Asian carp could completely devastate the Great Lakes and the hundreds of thousands of jobs that depend on them. We authored and passed a bipartisan law to require the Corps to finally make stopping Asian carp a top priority, and the Corps needs to follow the law and complete their work."
The Stop Invasive Species Act, written by Sen. Stabenow and Congressman Dave Camp, was signed into law by President Obama in July to force the Army Corps to finally make stopping Asian carp a top priority. The bipartisan law requires the Army Corps to submit to Congress and the president a plan to block Asian carp from entering the Great Lakes through 18 possible points of entry. The law requires the Corps to complete that plan in 2013.
The Corps' suggestion today that it may not comply with the law follows last month's discovery of more positive samples of Asian carp eDNA taken from western Lake Erie.
