"TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — Fortifying an Illinois waterway to prevent invasive carp from using it as a path to Lake Michigan could cost nearly three times as much as federal planners previously thought, according to an updated report.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers this week released a final strategy plan for upgrading the Brandon Road Lock and Dam near Joliet, Illinois, which experts consider a good location to block upstream movement of Asian carp that have infested the Mississippi and Illinois rivers.

Scientists warn that if the voracious carp become established in the Great Lakes, they could out-compete native species and harm the region’s $7 billion fishing industry.

The Corps’ new plan is similar to a draft from August 2017, but the estimated price tag has jumped from $275 million to nearly $778 million."

John Flesher reports for the Associated Press November 28, 2018. [2]