Whether it’s invasive Asian carp or the threat of industrialization with wind turbines, marine trade associations and other boating organizations in the Great Lakes are guarding the gates to protect the largest freshwater system in the world, which covers 94,600 square miles and contains 21% of the world’s surface fresh water, not to mention being the source of drinking water for more than 40 million people in the United States and Canada.

Moreover, the Great Lakes region represents more than one third of the marine industry’s annual sales, and fishing kicks in a $7 billion-per-year economic impact. But much of this could be wiped out if Asian carp escape infiltrate the lakes and destroy native fisheries.

What’s stopping their movement is deployed in Illinois. It’s known as the Brandon Road Interbasin Project, a state-of-the art barricade at an important pinch point along the Des Plaines River in Joliet. From there, carp could make their way from the Mississippi River to Lake Michigan.

Much to the chagrin of boating and fishing interests, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker inexplicably delayed for months the signing of a critical agreement with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Without it, there would’ve been additional costs and delays in projects that continue to keep carp from entering Lake Michigan at Chicago. He finally signed it June 30.

According to Molly Flanagan, chief operating officer at the Chicago-based Alliance for the Great Lakes, it had been at least 18 months since the state had the agreement, and it’s never been clear what the holdup was, considering all state and federal funds were lined up.

“We have invasive carp amassing below Brandon Road, and now is the time to act,” Flanagan said. “The state’s failure to sign was the one thing holding up the project.”

The project costs more than $1.1 billion, but it’s a price worth paying to keep the Great Lakes healthy and protect the recreational boating and fishing industries.

Stakeholders in the United States and Canada have long worried that the rivers and canal system connecting the Great Lakes with the Mississippi River would be a gateway for Asian carp. It’s a connection that exists because Chicago reversed the flow of the river, connecting it to the canal system bound for the Des Plaines and Illinois rivers, then the Mississippi.

In a single day late last year, 1 million pounds of carp were taken out of the Illinois River. Worse, a live invasive carp was captured seven miles from Lake Michigan, past barriers in the canal system designed to keep the invaders out.

Bighead, silver, black and grass carp can approach or exceed 100 pounds and 4 feet in length. They are voracious eaters and would likely decimate native fish populations in the Great Lakes. Bighead and silver carp are the biggest threat to the Great Lakes and the closest to encroaching Lake Michigan, according to Titus Seilheimer, fisheries outreach specialist at Wisconsin Sea Grant.

The expansion of the Brandon Road project, which will now add additional locks and protections, has been a decade in the making, and a major priority of marine trade associations and organizations, including the Alliance for the Great Lakes.

Silver and bighead carp have already wreaked havoc on the Mississippi and Illinois rivers, out-competing native fish for food and injuring people in boats as they leap from the water at the sound of a boat engine.

The critical Brandon Road project will act as the choke point to stop carp from reaching Lake Michigan. The project moving forward is cause for our $16 billion Great Lakes boating industry, our $7 billion fishery, and the entire Great Lakes ecosystem to celebrate.