Construction of Asian carp barrier in Illinois hits another snag

WASHINGTON — Nine months ago, President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum instructing his administration to "achieve maximum speed and efficiency" in moving to block invasive Asian carp from reaching the Great Lakes.

But the key project in Illinois to erect barriers that would prevent the fish from infiltrating Lake Michigan has since been paused and remains under administrative review by the Trump administration, according to lawmakers in Michigan and Illinois.

The Democratic senators from both states wrote to the White House budget director and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, urging them to end the pause, review, and release the federal funds that Congress already approved to allow the project to proceed.

They expressed concern that continued delay could soon affect the next round of contract awards and cause the long-delayed project's cost to spike after more than a decade of study, engineering work and planning.

"The federal investment currently is on hold without justification, and additional contracts for the project cannot be awarded due to the funding pause," the senators wrote.

"The current pause and review could increase the cost and slow the final completion date of (the project), increasing the likelihood that invasive carp could enter the Great Lakes. If invasive carp were to become established in the Great Lakes, they would outcompete existing fish populations, permanently damage ecosystems, and significantly impair the $7 billion Great Lakes economy."

The senators who signed the Jan. 15 letter are Michigan Sens. Gary Peters of Bloomfield Township, Elissa Slotkin of Holly and Illinois Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, though the project has historically had bipartisan support.

Neither the White House nor the Army Corps responded to questions Tuesday about the administrative pause and halt in spending on the carp project, including when it was put in place.

The episode is just the latest holdup for the $1.15 billion project at the Brandon Road Lock & Dam in Joliet, Illinois, that Congress authorized in 2020 after a decades-long effort by the Corps, scientists and state officials to address the invasive carp. The fish are currently held in check by electrical barriers downriver that are considered unreliable.

Michigan and Illinois officials had reached an agreement in 2024 with the Army Corps to move forward on construction of the project at Brandon Road. The agreement allows for $274 million in federal funding and $114 million in state funding to be used for the construction of the first of three phases of the project. Almost all of the federal appropriation comes from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law signed under former President Joe Biden.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer last year raised the Asian carp issue during face-to-face meetings with Trump and he brought it up in remarks in the Oval Office in April, calling the carp a "powerful" fish.

"We're also working on a certain fish that's taken over a beautiful lake called Michigan, right? And that's a tough one," Trump said at the time. "They jump out of the water. They jump at the fishermen. I mean, I've never seen anything like it."

At the time, Trump said he had spoken with the Army Corps and noted they have a "pretty gruesome method" for blocking the fish, even if it's "expensive."

"It's sort of a bipartisan thing. When you get it right down there, it's a very expensive thing," Trump said. "I said, 'Well, but we have to save Lake Michigan.' Because these fish — they eat everything in the way, including the other fish. They eat everything."

The next month, Trump issued a memorandum explicitly expressing support for what's known as the Brandon Road project and directed federal agency heads to streamline any permitting and environmental reviews or approvals for the project "as quickly as possible."

Trump also demanded at the time that Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat, drop his hold on the project's starting construction over funding tensions, which seemed to have been resolved after the president's memorandum.

Months later, in August, however, Trump suggested he'd withhold funding for Brandon Road because Pritzker hadn't made the same request for help on the issue that Whitmer did, the Chicago Tribune reported. "I think until I get that request from that guy, I’m not going to do anything about it," he said.

The project near Joliet is the result of over 10 years of study and planning by the Army Corps to prevent Asian carp from traveling beyond the Brandon Road lock and dam, which is 286 miles above the confluence of the Illinois and Mississippi rivers.

The location is considered a choke point in the fight against invasive species reaching Great Lakes waterways, where scientists say the fish would pose a significant threat to the region’s native species and aquatic ecosystems.

The Brandon Road plans involve building a series of mechanisms to block carp from traveling from the Mississippi River watershed to Lake Michigan, including an electric barrier; underwater sounds and an air bubble "curtain" that deters fish; a barge clearing device that makes sure fish don't sneak through; pesticides; upstream fishing; and other methods. It is expected to take six to eight years to complete.

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