The Trump administration has ordered a hold on the release of a tentative plan to stop Asian carp from reaching the Great Lakes by strengthening a choke point in the Chicago waterway system, according to the Detroit Free Press.

The White House wants to review the plan for stopping Asian silver and bighead carp at the Brandon Road Lock & Dam, which the U.S. Army Corps had been scheduled to release in draft form on Feb. 28, the newspaper reported.

The release is on indefinite hold for now, confirmed Allen Marshall, public affairs officer for the Army Corps Rock Island District.

Marshall would not say where the delay was initiated.

Miranda Margowsky, press secretary for Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., said the senator's office "confirmed with multiple sources at Army Corps headquarters informing us that it was the Administration that forced the delay."

Stabenow issued a statement accusing the White House of siding with "special interests" trying to block carp control, and calling the delay on a critical step in the effort to stop the fish from reaching Lake Michigan "extremely alarming"

Marshall said the complex draft plan release was delayed for the purposes of "coordination with different levels of government."

"We're just coordinating that effort with not only government entities but also non government stakeholders," he said, declining to specify which non-government organizations the Army Corps was coordinating with.

A future release date is "undetermined right now."

The Great Lakes Commission received an email from the Army Corps on Tuesday morning informing them the report was "deferred pending further coordination" that is "necessary to address the range of diverse ecosystems and national economies potentially impacted by outcomes of the study."

Matt Doss, policy specialist with the interstate commission that helps develop Great Lakes policy, said the delay creates uncertainty around the start of a much-anticipated process into which the Army Corps has already invested millions of dollars and several years.

The report is a draft, not a final plan, and states are eager to review it, he said.

"There's already been frustration with the slow pace of progress by the Army Corp and this has the potential to further slow down our ability to move forward with well-researched and common sense technologies," he said.

The Brandon Road plan, while anticipated by many in the Great Lakes region, was criticized as an "unnecessary experiment" by Illinois Lt. Gov. Evelyn Sanguinetti, a Republican, in a Feb. 24 op-ed in the Chicago Tribune.

Sanguinetti wrote that construction of the Brandon Road Tentatively Selected Plan (TSP) would involve construction of "an engineered channel, another electric barrier, water jets and noise cannons, and the first-of-its-kind flushing lock system" that would cost between $230 million and $270 million to build, and another $8 million to $10 million to operate and maintain each year.

Illinois has fought efforts to hydrologically separate the Mississippi River and Great Lakes drainage basins, arguing the link is vital to commercial shipping and movement of agricultural commodities and other goods. "Any plan that disrupts commercial navigation with a big-barge bottleneck at the Brandon Road Lock and Dam will face opposition from the state of Illinois," Sanguinetti wrote.

On Feb. 23, a letter signed by 16 Republican members of Congress, mostly from Illinois and Indiana, was sent to the White House urging the Brandon Road plan be delayed until a new secretary of the Army Civil Works office is confirmed.

The letter argues the leading edge of the carp population is still 10 miles downriver of the Brandon Road lock and efforts to fish out the population have dropped the silver and bighead carp population by 68 percent.

"Many commercial vessel owners and their employees that reside in our districts are greatly concerned the TSP will include a structural modification to the Brandon Road Lock that would disrupt commercial activity on the CAWS (Chicago Area Waterway System) and harm the local, regional and ultimately the national economy," the letter read. "Further, there remains concern that any structural modification to the lock, such as an electric barrier, could result in additional safety hazard for towboat crews."

In November, the Inland Waterways Users Board, which is part of an Army Corps advisory board on Asian carp, came out against the Brandon Road plan, saying that "current measures are sufficient."

Nonetheless, Michigan officials are eager to review the Brandon Road plan. Michigan legislators and policymakers have long demanded action to stop the plankton gobbling bighead and silver carp advancing toward Lake Michigan, which could decimate the Great Lakes multi-billion dollar sport fishing industry if the species become established.

The state is offering $1 million in a unique open crowd-sourcing challenge for non-traditional ideas that could help prevent the fish from reaching the Great Lakes.

Tammy Newcomb, senior water policy specialist for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, said the Brandon Road Lock on the Des Plaines River near Joliet, Ill., is a "unique" location in the Chicago waterway system that could supply redundancy to existing barriers. The plan is supposed to accomplish twin objectives of allowing commerce to move through the system while halting the carp's advance.

Newcomb said the existing electric barrier upstream near Romeoville, Ill. is not foolproof. Small fish have been shown to pass through it and studies have demonstrated that barges "have the ability to drag or push fish through."

Chicago advocacy nonprofit the Alliance for the Great Lakes says Asian carp larvae have been detected less than 50 miles from Lake Michigan.

"We really feel as a region we need some additional redundancy in the Chicago Area Waterway System to prevent the fish from moving closer to the Great Lakes," Newcomb said. "Michigan is very much looking forward to discussing what some of those options are."

Michigan conservation groups also criticized the delay.

"Anglers in the Great Lakes states expect solutions to keep invasive carp from ruining our multi-billion dollar sport-fishing industry." said Dan Eichinger, executive director of Michigan United Conservation Clubs. "It requires decisive action and this delay is unacceptable. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers needs to proceed immediately with the Brandon Road study to protect our lakes, economy, outdoor recreation and way of life."