The Associated Press – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, widely accused of moving too slowly to prevent Asian carp and other exotic species from invading the Great Lakes, will release a short list of possible solutions next year to quicken the process, officials said today.

Previously, the corps had insisted it would need until late 2015 to recommend a permanent fix — a timetable challenged by five states in a federal lawsuit and legislation proposed in Congress. Critics say faster action is needed as huge, aggressive carp that have infested the Mississippi River and many of its tributaries bear down on the lakes, where they would gobble up food needed by native species and further disrupt ailing ecosystems.

Obama administration officials told The Associated Press ahead of an announcement scheduled for today that the corps will pick up the pace under a revised strategy in which it no longer will devise a single preferred method. Instead, the agency will put forward several options and leave it to Congress and the public to decide which they prefer.

“This new step will result in a more focused path forward that could mean faster implementation of a permanent solution for protecting our Great Lakes from Asian carp,” said John Goss, the Asian Carp program director for the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

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