Great Lakes Groups Call for Construction to Restart on Invasive Carp Barrier
The Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council joined Great Lakes organizations from across the region in calling for construction to resume on the Brandon Road Interbasin Project, a critical effort to prevent invasive carp from entering the Great Lakes through the Illinois River.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently halted construction on the project without warning. No reason has been given for the stoppage, despite repeated requests for information from the bipartisan Congressional Great Lakes Task Force, state agencies in Illinois and Michigan, and Great Lakes organizations. The call to resume construction comes as juvenile invasive carp have been detected in the Illinois River just 80 miles from Lake Michigan, the closest they have ever been found to the Great Lakes.
The Brandon Road project is designed to use a series of barriers and deterrents at a key connection between the Mississippi River Basin and the Great Lakes to reduce the risk of invasive carp spreading into the Great Lakes.
As part of the joint statement, our Director of Community and Government Relations, Abbie Hawley, emphasized the importance of acting before invasive carp enter the Great Lakes:
“The Brandon Road Lock and Dam Project is not one that can afford delay while the threat it is designed to stop keeps closing the distance to Lake Michigan. We are at a critical juncture in history, a moment when a threat to a precious natural resource is understood, the tools to stop it exist, and the only real question left is whether we will act with the urgency the moment demands.
The Great Lakes hold roughly 20 percent of the world’s surface fresh water and support a multibillion-dollar fishery and recreation economy across two countries and dozens of tribal nations. Once invasive carp establish a breeding population in the Great Lakes, there is no removal plan, no clean-up phase, no do-over. Now is the time for us to recognize the challenge for what it is and rise to meet it. If this project continues to be delayed, history will show that we fully understood the danger and let human shortcomings determine the fate of the Great Lakes.”
Read the full joint statement and statements from participating Great Lakes organizations: