Michigan proposes partnership to help pay for new Asian carp controls

Michigan has 3,000 miles of coastline and more Great Lakes water within its jurisdiction than any other state or province in the basin. But one of the big ecological threats to this freshwater system is well outside the state’s borders — in Illinois and Indiana, where invasive species of Asian carp would be most likely to enter the Great Lakes basin, via the Chicago Area Waterway System.Gov. Rick Snyder proposed that all of the Great Lakes states (along with Ontario) collectively pay for that $8 million in operations costs. His idea is for each jurisdiction to pitch in a percentage equal to its share of total Great Lakes surface water (see table). For example, 40.7 percent of the lakes’ surface water is in Michigan; that state would, in turn, provide $3.3 million of the $8 million.