Stop the carp invasion into the Great Lakes

As Congressional committees begin debating the Water Resources Development Act, our representatives should keep in mind the need to address the imminent threat of invasive carp to the Great Lakes — the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth and one of our country’s greatest natural resources.

Invasive carp, introduced to the United States in the 1970s to control aquatic vegetation, have wreaked ecological havoc as they compete with other fish for food and reproduce rapidly in areas bordering the Great Lakes and in other watersheds in states like Kentucky. Invasive carp cause serious damage to native fish populations and degrade ecosystems, but they also pose serious risks to boaters and water-based recreation as they leap out of the water when startled.

With no known predators, these fish also pose a severe threat to the economic health of the Great Lakes, specifically the region’s $7 billion commercial and sport fishing industry and its $16 billion recreational fishing industry. Invasive carp are located less than 50 miles from Lake Michigan, and a few years back, a live carp was found just nine miles away from the lake, having likely broken through a protective electric barrier.

Congress rightly recognized invasive carp’s threat to the Great Lakes several years ago and subsequently instructed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to examine ways to prevent these harmful fish from reaching the Lakes. The Corps, working with the state of Illinois and other Great Lakes states, has made significant progress in designing innovative technological measures at the Brandon Road Lock and Dam in Joliet, Illinois, which is the choke point for invasive carp traveling from the Mississippi River Basin into the Great Lakes.

The Brandon Road Project, which consists of a series of measures including an underwater acoustic fish deterrent, an air bubble curtain, electric barriers and a flushing lock, got a big boost in January when the Corps announced that it would allocate $226 million to this project from the recently enacted Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. This investment is enough to finish off the project’s design and engineering so that the project may move seamlessly into the first phase of construction in 2024 when the planning is complete. 

However, there is one more thing that Congress needs to do to make sure that the Brandon Road Project is implemented as soon as possible: Heed the call of the Great Lakes governors and change the cost-share of the project to make it 100 percent federal, as opposed to the traditional cost-sharing arrangement between the Corps and its local sponsor. Congress must view the Corps project as more than just a local water resources project. Because the innovative technologies the Corps is implementing at Brandon Road can be used elsewhere to prevent the spread of invasive species in other states and critical waterways, it is clearly a project with national benefits. Furthermore, the project benefits more than just one state as it protects a watershed that serves all eight Great Lakes states, as well as two Canadian provinces, proving it even has international benefits. Most importantly, changing the cost share will ensure that the project proceeds to construction as soon as the design is complete.

Local governments in the Great Lakes region have already committed millions of dollars to try to control other aquatic invasive species such as zebra mussels and sea lamprey. Thankfully, it is not yet too late to stop the spread of invasive carp into the Great Lakes. Moving the Brandon Road project’s cost share to 100 percent federal is an investment in protecting the Great Lakes — and the country’s waterways — and we urge Congress to do just that as it writes the next Water Resources Development Act.

Don Jodrey is the director of federal relations at the Alliance for the Great Lakes, a nonpartisan nonprofit working across the region to protect our most precious resource: the fresh, clean and natural waters of the Great Lakes.