Lock And Dam Study Lists Additional Possible Controls On Asian Carp

A federal study being released Monday lists additional ways to try to keep Asian carp out of Lake Michigan.

The release comes six months after the Trump administration reportedly halted the release of the report, which looks at possible carp controls at the Brandon Road Lock and Dam along the Des Plaines River near Joliet, Illinois. A summary published last Friday indicates underwater electric barriers, water jets and noise as favored ways to keep the big carp from getting closer to the lake.

Molly Flanagan of the environmental group, the Alliance for the Great Lakes, said it appears the recommendations haven’t been weakened.

“I’m relieved to see that the options that they seem to be recommending are the same options the corps was talking about in January and February, and what we hope that means is things haven’t been changed,” Flanagan said Sunday evening.

She added it looks like the Army Corps of Engineers will also consider a concrete channel engineered to stop the passage of fish.

Public hearings will be held during a 45-day comment period before the Corps issues a final plan for the Brandon Road Lock and Dam. Congress has been pressuring the White House to unveil the report.

In June, an Asian Carp was found upstream of an existing electric barrier system at Romeoville, Illinois, just 9 miles from Lake Michigan. Barge owners, whose vessels pass through the lock, and the state of Illinois, have said they don’t want boats to face additional delays.