Work on a more than $1 billion project to deter invasive carp from entering the Great Lakes is set to resume in Illinois, after the Trump administration lifted a stop-work order following a direct appeal from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to President Donald Trump.
Officials in Whitmer's office said they had received confirmation of the lifting of the stop-work order from the White House and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers late Wednesday, Sept. 2.
The $1.15 billion Brandon Road Interbasin Project is a planned multilayered defense system at the Brandon Road Lock and Dam on the Des Plaines River in Joliet, Illinois, about 40 miles southwest of Lake Michigan. Using electric, acoustic and bubble deterrents, the project — a partnership among the federal government,
Illinois and Michigan — aims to protect the Great Lakes from bighead and silver carp and other invasive species that could potentially harm the more than $5.1 billion Great Lakes fishery.
President Donald Trump on May 9, 2025, signed a memorandum ordering his administration to "expeditiously implement the most effective mechanisms, barriers and other measures" to keep invasive Asian carp out of the Great Lakes, following through on a commitment he made to Whitmer in the Oval Office a month earlier. Federal funding outlays followed, including nearly $114 million awarded for initial construction components.
Work on the project largely stopped in December 2025 as the Trump administration ordered an administrative review. The work resumed this April, as the administration moved authority over the Illinois-based project from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Rock Island, Illinois, District to the corps' Detroit District — a move many perceived as retaliation against Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat and an outspoken Trump critic.
Work on the fish barriers was halted again in late July. In a July 30 letter to Army Corps Detroit District Commander Lt. Col. Donald Lew, Illinois Department of Natural Resources Interim Director Renee Snow said state officials learned of the latest work stoppage on July 24 — not from federal partners but from associates of a construction contractor working on the project. An Army Corps spokesperson later characterized the work stoppage as another "administrative review" without further explanation.
Officials in Whitmer's office, in a statement Thursday, said the governor spoke with Trump about lifting the stop-work order the previous day.
"The governor underscored the urgency of the moment," officials said, noting the Illinois Department of Natural Resources during routine monitoring in August collected hundreds of small juvenile silver carp, 4 to 6 inches long, in the Marseilles Pool of the Illinois River just 80 miles from Lake Michigan, the closest juvenile fish populations have ever been spotted to the Great Lake.
"If the species establishes in the lake, there is no getting it out," officials in Whitmer's office stated.
Whitmer "emphasized that Brandon Road is the strongest available defense for the Great Lakes and the $8 trillion economy they support, and that continued delays also jeopardize jobs tied to the project."
Bighead, silver, grass and black carp are all native to Asia, and were imported to the southern United States in the 1960s and 1970s to control algae blooms in aquaculture facilities, farm ponds and sewage lagoons. Floods and human mismanagement helped the carp escape into the Mississippi River system, where their spread has exploded.
The carp grow fast, eat voraciously and breed prolifically. A single female can produce a million eggs or more, and the fish can grow up to 100 pounds. Scientists believe the invaders would out-compete native species and Michigan's prized sports fish, creating ecological chaos on the Great Lakes.
Pritzker, in a Sept. 2 letter to the White House, also demanded that the Brandon Road project work resume. "“The Great Lakes should not become collateral damage in political games,” Pritzker stated.
Contact Keith Matheny: kmatheny@freepress.com
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Why stop-work order on Great Lakes carp barrier was suddenly lifted
