After Whitmer call, Trump administration lifts halt on invasive carp project

More than a month after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers halted work on a critical project aimed at keeping invasive carp out of the Great Lakes, the stop-work order barring the effort from progressing has been lifted.

In a text message to Michigan Advance Thursday Morning, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s Communications Director Robert Leddy confirmed that the stop-work order on the Brandon Road Interbasin Project in Illinois had been lifted. 

Whitmer spoke with President Donald Trump on Wednesday and asked him to direct the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to lift its July order, raising concerns that invasive carp were recently found 80 miles from Lake Michigan in the Illinois River.

Cosponsored by Michigan, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the State of Illinois, the Brandon Road Interbasin Project targets a critical pinch point at the Brandon Road Lock and Dam in Joliet, Ill. By making changes to the lock and layering several types of technology to deter fish from moving upstream, the project is intended to prevent invasive carp and other nuisance species from entering the Great Lakes.

The Great Lakes Fishery Commission has identified four species of invasive carp as threats to the Great Lakes: bighead carp, silver carp, black carp, and grass carp. The commission warns that these species could outcompete native fish and that preventing their introduction to the Great Lakes is the only effective approach to sustaining the aquatic ecosystem.

While speaking with the president, Whitmer noted that the Brandon Road Interbasin Project is the strongest available defense against this threat to both the Great Lakes and the $8 trillion economy they support.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a vocal Trump critic, also reached out to the president on Wednesday, demanding both an end to the stop-work order, and an explanation as to why the project was halted to begin with. 

“Invasive carp continue to present a clear and immediate threat to the Great Lakes ecosystem and the many communities, businesses, and economies that depend on it,” Pritzker said in his letter. “Yet, your administration ordered work stopped on the project at the end of July. Over a month later, the State of Illinois has not received a meaningful explanation for why.”

The Alliance for the Great Lakes, a nonprofit focused on protecting and conserving the Great Lakes, also criticized the work stoppage in a statement on Thursday, with its President and CEO Joel Brammeier underscoring the importance of the effort to both the ecosystem and the economy of the Great Lakes.

“Now that construction can resume, we will continue to make sure that it stays on track – at the construction site and in Washington, DC,” Brammeier said. “For the sake of the ecosystem and economy that our region depends on, we simply cannot afford any further disruption.”