Todd Spangler

Detroit Free Press

WASHINGTON — A tentative plan to address the threat of invasive Asian carp moving closer to Lake Michigan has been delayed, with sources telling the Free Press that the Trump administration ordered its deferral.

The plan for the Brandon Road Lock and Dam near Joliet, Ill., was set to be released today by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, an important step toward finalizing a project that was expected to call for barriers at a key choke-point on a Chicago-area river.

But a government source with knowledge of the project told the Free Press that the plan was ordered delayed while the White House reviews it, even though it's been underway for years. The plan was not the last word on the project, allowing for other alternatives to be considered while the public provided comment before being finalized.

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The White House did not immediately respond to questions about the delay and it was not known who may have called for the review. Business and shipping interests have aligned against the project, as have some Illinois state officials and other members of Congress who say it could hamper inland navigation.

Last week, Illinois Lt. Gov. Evelyn Sanguinetti called for a delay in a column published in the Chicago Tribune, saying, “Any plan that disrupts commercial navigation with a big-barge bottleneck … will face opposition from the state of Illinois.” A group of Illinois congressmen called for a delay as well.

Other Great Lakes members of Congress as well as environmentalists have been calling for a barrier at the choke-point on the Des Plaines River for years, however, arguing that a barrier at Brandon Road would help ensure that Asian carp are kept out of Lake Michigan, from which they could spread and decimate fish habitat throughout the Lakes.

The source spoke to the Free Press anonymously because neither the administration nor the Army Corps had publicly announced the delay. Today, however, Allen Marshall, spokesman for the Corps’ Rock Island, Ill., District, confirmed that a report due out today had been deferred “pending more coordination” among government agencies.

He did not comment on whether the White House or the Trump administration had any role in the delay.

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“The bottom line is, reports of this magnitude are going to require coordination … It’s not uncommon for things to be put on hold,” said Marshall.

U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., who along with other members of the state’s delegation to Congress, has called for quick action on barriers at the Brandon Road Lock and Dam, also confirmed for the Free Press reports of a Trump administration delay. Just last month, she and U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, also D-Mich., had urged the then-head of the Corps to complete and release the Brandon Road study.

“It’s extremely alarming that it appears the Trump administration has decided to delay the release of today’s plan, which is a critical part of our efforts to stop Asian carp and other invasive species from reaching our Great Lakes," Stabenow said. "After a lengthy review process, which included extensive outreach and collaboration with a broad range of stakeholders, it seems that the administration has decided to side with a narrow group of special interests intent on preventing actions to address the movement of Asian Carp toward Lake Michigan."

Stabenow called on Trump administration officials "to fully explain the rationale for this delay and to provide a date for when this plan will be released.”

While it’s not known exactly what the plan was to include, in her column Illinois Lt. Gov. Sanguinetti – who wrote in her role as chairman of the Illinois River Coordinating Council – said it was expected to call for “an engineered channel, another electric barrier, water jets and noise cannons, and the first-of-its-kind flushing lock system” costing as much as $270 million to build and up to $10 million a year to maintain.

She argued that such expense was unwarranted because electronic barriers near Chicago and other efforts have successfully kept the migration of the Asian bighead and silver carp away from Lake Michigan, saying carp migration has been stalled some 60 miles from Lake Michigan.

But as recently as late last year, there was evidence that juvenile carp had edged closer and critics have noted studies that indicate some smaller fish may be swept through electronic barriers by passing barges, potentially compromising their effectiveness.

Contact Todd Spangler at 703-854-8947 or at tspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter at @tsspangler.