The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is flush with billions of dollars following passage of the bipartisan infrastructure bill. Some of those funds are being funneled toward critical projects in the Chicago region, the Corps announced Wednesday.
Army Corps of Engineers

Environmentalists Vow to Keep Fighting

A 20-year extension of the dump, operated by the Army Corps of Engineers to hold toxic sludge dredged from Lake Michigan, is still under review. The dump was supposed to be retired in 2022 and turned over to the Chicago Park District for redevelopment.

The repair, expected to take six weeks, will consist of piling 1,500 tons of rocks along the shoreline and building a concrete wall to guard against further erosion.

Congress authorized a plan from the Army Corps of Engineers to restore the Chicago River’s South Fork, a 1.25-mile stretch more familiarly known as Bubbly Creek. Now actual dollars need to follow.

When it comes to keeping Asian carp out of the Great Lakes, Illinois is the last line of defense, but the state’s not alone in the battle. Michigan will transfer up to $8 million to Illinois via an intergovernmental agreement as part of an effort to keep Asian carp at bay.

Community organizers on Chicago’s Southeast Side are marshaling their forces and looking for solutions to address what they see as yet another environmental threat to their already beleaguered neighborhood.

Efforts to increase demand for Asian carp as a food are aimed at buying time for development of a long-term solution to the threat posed by the invasive fish.

The east bank of the North Shore Channel has been stripped of foliage between Foster and Bryn Mawr avenues, to be replaced with native species. Neighbors say the project has laid bare “eyesores” on the opposite bank.

Sen. Dick Durbin and Mayor Lori Lightfoot held a joint news conference Friday to call for federal funding to manage and protect the region’s vulnerable shoreline.

Lake Michigan water levels are expected to top the record for June, and there’s a chance they could surpass the all-time record set in 1986. We head to the lakefront, and speak with experts.

The head of the Army Corps of Engineers has sent Congress a $778 million plan to fortify an Illinois waterway with noisemakers, electric cables and other devices in the hope that they will prevent Asian carp from reaching the Great Lakes.

An effort that began two decades ago to restore the banks of the North Branch of the Chicago River in Horner Park is finally complete.

The Army Corps of Engineers moves ahead on its plan to control Asian carp and other invasive species.

The city and ecologists are close to finishing Chicago's newest park – an ecologically diverse habitat on what was once Meigs Field. We'll talk to two planners involved with Northerly Island's transformation.