A multi-state partnership to help the federal government fund a new barrier to keep Asian carp out of the Great Lakes is now up and running. Governor Snyder is teaming up with Wisconsin, Ohio and Ontario for the Great Lakes Basin Partnership to Block Asian Carp. He cautioned in South Haven yesterday, though, that they won’t be able to get a permanent barrier up at the Brandon Road Lock and Dam in Illinois immediately.
“This is not a fast solution. Boy, I wish I had better news for you there,” said Snyder. “But even starting today with all the hard work, it could be as late as 2025 to get it fully in place.”
He noted the states and Canadian province in the partnership represent over 90% of the surface area of the Great Lakes, and he’s open to all other Great Lakes states joining in to help share the costs. The governor’s office estimates the nonfederal share to operate and maintain the system being devised by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will be $8 million a year.
“The idea here is to move this project forward with the federal government, they need sponsors to join them, both with the capital costs and the operating costs,” said Snyder.
The Army Corps says it could begin construction on a $275 million federally funded invasive carp barrier improvement project in 2022 at the Brandon Road Lock and Dam with the system becoming operational by 2025. The plan incorporates a suite of technologies, including an engineered approach channel that could serve as a national test model for invasive species monitoring and control, water jets to sweep out fish caught between barges, a flushing lock to eliminate fish eggs, larvae or floaters from going upstream toward the Great Lakes Basin, complex noise systems to keep fish out of the channel, and state-of-the-art electric barriers at the lock’s entrances.
