Politics
Trump Lifts Stop-Work Order on Great Lakes Invasive Carp Barrier, Construction to Resume
Invasive carp are voracious feeders that grow and multiply rapidly. (Invasive Carp Regional Coordinating Committee)
A work stoppage on the billion-dollar Brandon Road invasive carp barrier project has ended.
A spokesperson for Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer told WTTW News the governor’s office had received confirmation Wednesday night from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the White House that the stop order was lifted.
Whitmer and President Donald Trump had spoken earlier Wednesday, according to her office. During that conversation, the governor “underscored the urgency of the moment” surrounding the carp barrier, her office said.
The Army Corps had halted work on the Brandon Road Interbasin Project in late July, prompting widespread backlash from politicians and advocacy organizations across the Great Lakes. The Corps did not provide information on the reason for the stoppage.
Despite the project being located in Illinois, Gov. JB Pritzker received no notification from the Trump administration regarding the resumption of work, his office told WTTW News.
“Illinois is glad to hear construction is finally restarting after it was stopped for no apparent reason, but you would expect if the administration really cared about protecting the Great Lakes, they would notify Illinois,” a Pritzker spokesperson said in a statement.
The Brandon Road project is considered the best chance of keeping invasive carp from entering Lake Michigan and the entire Great Lakes ecosystem. The fish have been steadily moving up the Mississippi River and its tributaries since they escaped captivity in the late 1970s.
Invasive carp refers to bighead, silver, black and grass species. These voracious feeders grow and multiply rapidly and outcompete native fish for resources. Should the carp enter the Great Lakes, experts fear the region’s fishing, boating and recreational industries would collapse.
Alliance for the Great Lakes pegged the value of the Great Lakes fishing industry at $5.1 billion and recreational boating at $16 billion.
In mid-August, sampling crews from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources discovered juvenile invasive silver carp further up the Illinois River than ever before since monitoring began in 2010, creating the “sense of urgency” referenced by Whitmer.
The barrier had been under discussion for more than a decade, but was stalled due to disagreements over funding, among other obstacles. Illinois and Michigan ultimately agreed to share costs with the federal government and construction got underway in early 2025.
The Brandon Road Lock and Dam, on the Des Plaines River near Joliet, is a critical pinch point where experts believe the carp can be deterred from swimming further north.
“The Brandon Road project is actually somewhat of a gauntlet for carp,” Katie O’Reilly, an invasive species specialist at the Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant, previously told WTTW News.
Its multiple deterrents include: a wall of bubbles that cue fish to turn around; and electric currents and sounds that can also stop the fish in their tracks.
“The idea is that by stacking all of these different deterrents, it reduces the possibility that they can get through any one of them,” O’Reilly said. “If it gets through one, it will get stopped by another.”
Project advocates said the work stoppage resulted in a costly and unnecessary delay.
“Now that construction can resume, we will continue to make sure that it stays on track — at the construction site and in Washington, D.C.,” said Joel Brammeier, president and CEO of the Alliance for the Great Lakes. “For the sake of the ecosystem and economy that our region depends on, we simply cannot afford any further disruption.”
The Army Corps of Engineers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Andrew Montequin contributed to this report.
Note: This article has been updated with a statement from Gov. JB Pritzker’s office.
Contact Patty Wetli: [email protected]
