CHICAGO (CN) — The governors of Illinois and Michigan announced Monday that their states had reached an agreement to cosponsor the Brandon Road Interbasin Project, an engineering effort to protect the Great Lakes ecosystem from Asian carp and other invasive aquatic animals.
The project aims to install a number of deterrents to invasive species at the Brandon Road Lock and Dam, located on the Des Plaines River near Joliet, Illinois. Though the river flows south toward the Mississippi River, carp and other species use it to enter Lake Michigan. The Army Corps of Engineers identified the area as a key chokepoint between the Mississippi River and Great Lakes Basins in 2014, and subsequently determined the dam could be used for deterring invasive species.
“Today’s agreement will help us get shovels in the ground as soon as possible on the critical Brandon Road project,” Democratic Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer said in a prepared statement. “The Great Lakes are the beating heart of Michigan’s economy, and Brandon Road will help us protect local communities and key industries, including fishing and boating, that support tens of thousands of good-paying jobs."
The Corps' plan for the Brandon Road Lock and Dam, which has been in the works since late December 2020, calls for the use of a number of structural and non-structural control measures. The structural components include a flushing lock, an electric barrier, "underwater acoustic deterrent," and air bubble fences, among other proposed options. As for the non-structural elements, the Corps called for increased public education on invasive species, better monitoring, the use of pesticides and the manual removal of non-native animals.
The entire project is expected to take several years to complete, with objectives spread over three distinct proposed "increments." The first increment alone will extend beyond 2025, and involves constructing some portions of the bubble fence and acoustic deterrents. The Corps has said it hopes to continue designing the second increment of the project even while construction in underway on the first.
The agreement reached Monday between Illinois and Michigan allocates a combined $114 million in state funding to begin the project, in addition to $274 million from the federal government.
“Complex agreements like this don’t happen in a vacuum, nor do they happen quickly. A tremendous amount of effort over many months went into hammering out the details of this agreement," Illinois Department of Natural Resources Director Natalie Phelps Finnie, who signed the deal on behalf of the state, said in a prepared statement.
Invasive species like carp are considered major threats to the Great Lakes' ecosystem. The Great Lakes Fishery Commission lists four Asian carp species — bighead carp, silver carp, black carp and grass carp — as particularly destabilizing because they can grow over four feet long and approach or exceed a weight of 100 pounds. At this size they can outcompete native lake fishes who trend much smaller, and have an outsized negative impact on lake vegetation, plankton and mollusks.
All four of the species were deliberately introduced to North America over the last several decades as aquacultural pest control animals, but subsequently escaped into the wild. None of the four species are currently present in the Great Lakes in significant numbers, but they have become more common in river systems further inland. Since 2010, anglers have caught several invasive carp specimens within just a few miles of Lake Michigan, including on the lake side of another electric barrier on the Des Plaines River meant to slow their spread.
"The consequences of an established bigheaded carp population are expected to include changes in planktonic communities, reduction in planktivore biomass, reduced recruitment of fishes with early pelagic life stages, and reduced stocks of piscivores," the Canadian government concluded in a 2011 risk assessment of bighead carp.
Numerous other non-native plant, fish and invertebrate species, like zebra mussels, also threaten the Great Lakes. A 1993 study published in the Journal of Great Lakes Research estimated that nearly 140 invasive species had become established in the Great Lakes since the early 1800s, mostly from Eurasia or the Atlantic coast. A 2022 report from The National Wildlife Federation increased that count to over 185 species, with 85 having been introduced via the 1959 opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway.
The Seaway connects the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean, but dozens of species have also entered the lakes in ocean vessels' ballast discharge. Besides the damage to local ecosystems these creatures present, the National Wildlife Federation also estimates they cost U.S. and American taxpayers and businesses $200 million per year.
The Brandon Road Lock and Dam can do little to prevent animals from entering the lakes via ballast discharge, though the Army Corps of Engineers said it was committed to preventing invasive species from entering the Great Lakes from inland waterways.
"The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Rock Island District has been working diligently with our partners in the states of Illinois and Michigan to move this critical project forward," said Rock Island District Commander Colonel Aaron Williams, in a prepared statement. "We are excited to be entering this next phase of the project and are committed to preventing the upstream movement of invasive carp and other aquatic nuisance species into the Great Lakes.”
In addition to the announcement that Illinois would cosponsor the project with Michigan, Pritzker's office announced Monday that independent contractors could begin bidding for fabrication, design and bedrock removal contracts at the Brandon Road site.
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