The Trump administration has lifted a stop-work order on a $1.15 billion barrier at the Brandon Road Lock and Dam in Joliet, Illinois that’s intended to stop the spread of the invasive carp into Lake Michigan.
The move announced this week came after Governor Gretchen Whitmer placed a call to President Trump. Whitmer spoke with Trump on September 2 and urged him to restart construction after hundreds of juvenile silver carp were found further upriver than previously documented last month, according to The Detroit News.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers subsequently notified Michigan that the stoppage has been lifted.
The decision came the same day Illinois Governor JB Pritzker sent Trump a blistering letter demanding the project be restarted and accusing the administration of putting partisan politics ahead of Great Lakes protection.
