* The Detroit News…
Federal officials lifted a stop-work order Wednesday, Sept. 2, that had halted construction on a state-federal project in Joliet, Illinois, meant to prevent invasive carp from reaching the Great Lakes.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s office said Wednesday it had been notified of the change by the White House and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The Army Corps had issued the stop work order in July as the project went under administrative review, though the Corps has declined to answer why the order was issued, who was conducting the review or how long it was expected to last.
Whitmer’s office said the stop-work order on the Brandon Road Interbasin Project was lifted after the governor spoke Wednesday to Trump, asking him to do so. […]
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker also had reached out to Trump on Wednesday in a letter that demanded the president allow for construction to restart, saying his state had received no explanation for the halt.
* From Pritzker’s letter…
The Great Lakes should not become collateral damage in your partisan games. They are an essential American asset. They provide drinking water to tens of millions of people, support a massive regional economy, sustain commercial and recreational fisheries, and represent one of the country’s most valuable natural resources.
Allowing this invasive species to gain a foothold in the Great Lakes would impose consequences that extend far beyond Illinois, and the costs of responding after the fact would dwarf the cost of preventing the invasion now. Every day of delay makes this project more expensive and its mission more difficult. Meanwhile, the carp are not waiting for you to abandon these games.
Just last month, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) detected several hundred juvenile silver carp roughly 80 miles from Lake Michigan and about 15 miles from the Brandon Road barrier. This is the first time invasive carp of this size have been detected this far upstream since monitoring began in 2010. I have now directed IDNR to request an emergency meeting of the project’s Senior Executive Board to receive updates.
Thoughts?
- NIU Grad - Thursday, Sep 3, 26 @ 10:07 am:
Double-edged sword for Whitmer: She gets the credit for being able to communicate and work with Trump to get this done (while Pritzker can only do strongly worded letters), but gets hit with being too soft on Trump because she aims to keep dialogue open.
- Give us Barabbas - Thursday, Sep 3, 26 @ 10:14 am:
Glad the project is back on track. Biologists have been tracking the problem and trying everything they can think of, including re-introducing gar, which are effective but only against the small fry, the carp big enough to breed are too big for the gar to eat. But something else has been slowing the progress of the carp as well as the gar and paid human fishermen. A habitat change as you get closer to the lake. The water chemistry has higher pollution levels which stress the carp, and the river banks have a lot more hard concrete sides, instead of the shallows where the carp baby fry live.
- JS Mill - Thursday, Sep 3, 26 @ 10:27 am:
= Trump because she aims to keep dialogue open.=
You are kidding yourself if you think it is about dialogue. It is entirely about pandering to trumps feelings and need to kisses up to. That is not criticism of Whitmer either. And Pritzker’s letter didn’t help and was surely performative with an eye on looking tough. That said this is the saddest presidency in U.S. history.
- Socially DIstant Watcher - Thursday, Sep 3, 26 @ 10:29 am:
NIU Grad: Double-edged sword for Trump, too. He delays a program vital to many states’ tourism and fishing industries, and for no clear reason.
Then again, maybe it’s not so double-edged for Trump; maybe it’s just dumb.
- Candy Dogood - Thursday, Sep 3, 26 @ 10:31 am:
Now that it’s Lake America, the Trump Administration seeks to prioritize keeping Asian Carp out of it. /snark
- Amalia - Thursday, Sep 3, 26 @ 10:34 am:
sometimes you just want to get things done and get out of the way. Whitmer should be running for President but she gets that it’s a crazy time. she just wants to get things done. like keep the invasive fish out.