Progress Illinois

The White House has named John Goss, former head of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, to be its new federal Asian Carp Director. The "carp czar" will oversee techniques for controlling the advancing Asian Carp population from entering the Great Lakes.

Although it will take several months to complete the full clean-up, a regional administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency said Sunday that significant improvements had been made at the site of an oil spill in Michigan's Kalamazoo River, which is connected to Lake Michigan.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is now estimating that more than 1 million gallons of oil have leaked into Michigan's Kalamazoo River, which is only 80 miles away from Lake Michigan. Experts say the spill could reach the body of water by Sunday if the leak is not properly contained.

Just days after five states filed suit against the federal government and Chicago's water department demanding more action to keep Asian carp out of the Great Lakes, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and Gov. Pat Quinn are launching a $2 million feasibility study that will analyze ways to prevent an invasion, including permanently separating the Great Lakes from the Mississippi River Basin. The results will be released in 18 months, just ahead of a similar Army Corps of Engineers report.

Even though state officials found a 20-pound live Asian carp that breached an electric barrier system built to prevent the invasion of the fish into the Great Lakes, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says it has "no intention" of closing the locks on the man-made shipping canal that runs into Lake Michigan. Michigan's Attorney General Mike Cox said yesterday that he's exploring new legal actions to force immediate closure.

A second poisoning operation designed to kill Asian carp swimming in Chicago's waterways did not produce any unwanted fish, Illinois officials said Monday. The successful operation suggests few if any Asian carp are still near a shipping lock where scientists found genetic material from the species last year.

Later today, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources will attempt its second massive Asian carp kill, dumping thousands of gallons of a toxic chemical into a two-mile stretch of the Little Calumet River in Chicago's southern suburbs. Officials hope the operation will help them understand how many carp are in the area.