CHICAGO, IL (May 23, 2025) – Today, the state of Illinois announced that it closed on the acquisition of a nearly 50-acre parcel of property in Will County needed for the Brandon Road Interbasin Project, a federal project designed to prevent invasive carp from accessing the Great Lakes. This will allow the next set of contracts for the construction of the first increment of the Brandon Road invasive carp barrier to proceed as planned. Invasive carp are headed toward the Great Lakes, advancing up the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers where they have already wreaked havoc. The Brandon Road project – a series of underwater deterrents and barriers at an existing lock in Illinois – is our best chance to stop them before they threaten the region’s $5.1 billion fishing and $16 billion recreational boating industries.
“The land transfer enables ongoing construction to proceed on schedule. The Alliance thanks Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and the Illinois DNR for their continued work toward stopping ecosystem-destroying invasive carp from reaching the Great Lakes,” said Don Jodrey, Alliance for the Great Lakes Director of Federal Relations.
“Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a bipartisan group of Great Lakes champions in Congress, and the White House have also made it clear that this project is a top priority for protecting the Great Lakes and we appreciate their support and collaboration,” Jodrey said.
What’s next? The State of Illinois needs to transfer the rest of the lands as soon as possible so that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers can do site testing to ensure that there are no contaminants on those lands. This process of site testing and evaluation and site clearing is expected to take up to a year. Assuming that there is no contamination, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will issue construction contracts for increment two and the project will proceed on schedule. It is critical that Illinois transfer the remaining lands as soon as possible.
# # #
Contact: Don Carr, Media Director, Alliance for the Great Lakes, dcarr@greatlakes.org