ILLINOIS—Another step has been taken to keep invasive carp out of the Great Lakes.
The Chicago-Sun Times reported recently that the state of Illinois has acquired the land needed to be able to move forward with a $1.15 billion barricade aimed at keeping Asian carp from entering the channel that connects the Mississippi River Basin with the Great Lakes.
As has been reported previously, the Brandon Road Interbasin Project is an underwater defense system long hailed as the solution to the carp problem. The system, which was designed by the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), is to be constructed in the Des Plaines River, which connects the Illinois River to Chicago’s shipping canal near suburban Joliet, Illinois. The billion-dollar lock and dam upgrade will deploy a bubble wall, acoustic blasts, an electric barrier and a flushing mechanism to keep the carp from passing through.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported that two weeks ago Illinois state officials announced they had reached a deal on September 30 for the two small upland parcels totaling 2.75 acres required for the project. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources confirmed that state officials are developing a plan to investigate the site and are reviewing whether any additional land is needed.
Earlier this month Illinois Governor JB Pritzker joined six other Great Lakes governors in submitting a letter to Congress, calling the project a “national priority” and urging lawmakers to provide full federal financing, reported the Sun-Times.
The invasive carp, a family of fish which also includes the bighead carp, black carp and grass carp, were first confirmed in the Mississippi River about 50 years ago and their populations have grown to the extent that if they get into the Great Lakes experts fear that it could wipe out the billion-dollar fishery.
For decades local, state-province and US and Canada federal governments have worried the carp could bypass Chicago and breach the Great Lakes, potentially reducing populations of native species that locals like to fish. The feared spread could wreak havoc on the world’s largest freshwater ecosystem and the multibillion-dollar tourism, boating and fishing industries that rely on it. Carp can out-eat and outgrow native fish.
