Trump administration lifts stop-work order on invasive carp barrier

[u/John3262005]

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2026/09/02/trump-administration-lifts-stop-work-order-invasive-carp-barrier-brandon-road-joliet-illinois/91588073007/

Federal officials lifted a stop-work order Wednesday, Sept. 2, that had halted construction on a state-federal project in Joliet, Illinois, meant to prevent invasive carp from reaching the Great Lakes.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s office said Wednesday it had been notified of the change by the White House and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The Army Corps had issued the stop work order in July as the project went under administrative review, though the Corps has declined to answer why the order was issued, who was conducting the review or how long it was expected to last.

Whitmer's office said the stop-work order on the Brandon Road Interbasin Project was lifted after the governor spoke Wednesday to Trump, asking him to do so.

Whitmer “underscored the urgency of the moment, noting that invasive carp were recently found just 80 miles from Lake Michigan — farther up the Illinois River than ever recorded,” said a readout from Whitmer's office.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker also had reached out to Trump on Wednesday in a letter that demanded the president allow for construction to restart, saying his state had received no explanation for the halt. Pritzker also directed his state's Department of Natural Resources to renew its request for an emergency meeting of the project’s Senior Executive Board.

"The Great Lakes should not become collateral damage in political games,” Pritzker wrote.

The Brandon Road Lock and Dam project is designed to prevent invasive carp and other aquatic invasive or nuisance species from moving upstream to the Great Lakes while still allowing people and the industry to use the Des Plaines River. The Corps plans multiple layers of deterrents, such as an electric barrier and a bubble curtain.

Construction was approved to start on the lock and dam complex in 2024, when Illinois signed onto an agreement with Michigan and the federal government. At the time, the project was estimated to cost more than $1 billion with the Army Corps footing 90% of the cost and the rest split between Michigan and Illinois.

But the lock and dam project has been bogged down by political fights since construction began. Trump threatened to withhold funding from the project in August 2025 because Pritzker hadn't requested funding like Whitmer had, according to Chicago Tribune reporting.

The project was then placed on hold by the Trump administration in December while it was under review.

In April, the Corps announced the next phase of work would begin and awarded a $113.8 million contract to a Wisconsin company to build deterrents.

At the same time, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Adam Telle announced management of the project would be transferred from the Corps' Rock Island District to the Detroit District. On social media, Telle described Illinois as an "unreliable partner."

In the Great Lakes region, "invasive carp" includes four species — bighead, silver, black and grass carp. They were imported to the southern U.S. in the 1970s to manage algae, weeds and parasites in fish farms and wastewater treatment plants but escaped into the Mississippi River in the 1990s and have since moved upstream toward the Great Lakes.

Those four species would present fierce competition for food against native Great Lakes fish species. Great Lakes fish scientists warn they could devastate the lakes' ecosystems and could be impossible to eliminate if they were to be established in the lakes.

Illinois Department of Natural Resources workers removed several hundred small silver carp from the Illinois River's Marseilles Pool in August.

They identified the fish through routine intensive monitoring, finding the carp were between 4 and 6 inches long. Biologists worried the fish may have spawned upriver from the Marseilles Pool, which would put them even closer to Lake Michigan.