“You have expressed concerns with Illinois taking on sole responsibility for a project that benefits the entire Great Lakes region, and we understand and share those concerns,” the letter read.

The federal government will pay 90% of the costs associated with the Brandon Road Interbasin Project’s construction, and just last month, the Illinois senators announced they had secured an increase in the federal cost share for operations and maintenance after construction to 90% as well.

Illinois and Michigan have also entered into a separate agreement to ensure any additional costs as the project continues are shared and do not fall disproportionately on either state’s taxpayers, the governor’s office said Monday.

Concerns about land acquisition and real estate at Brandon Road Lock and Dam presented a major obstacle, as privately owned land along the riverbank needed for construction is likely contaminated by a former coal plant.

Last year, experts told the Tribune negotiations would be complex; the state was hesitant to buy the property from energy company NRG, which owns the land, and bear the responsibility to ensure it was free of contaminants before passing it on to the federal government. Officials didn’t specify Monday how or whether these concerns have been ultimately resolved.

Now that the agreement has been signed, contracts for fabrication, continued design and bedrock removal are slated for solicitation from interested parties in the coming weeks.

The innovative, multipronged plan to install a “gantlet” or layered system at a “critical pinch point” in the Des Plaines River emerged from several years of collaboration among scientists, engineers and partners from numerous U.S., Canadian and tribal agencies surrounding the Great Lakes.

Invasive carp, particularly silver and bighead carp, pose a particular danger to aquatic life due to their large numbers and reproductive capacity. When they reach a new stream, river, lake or anywhere water touches, like wetlands, they can easily outcompete and starve native fish and mussels by eating all the plankton from the base of the food chain.

Under the project, when silver and bighead carp approach the lock and dam in Joliet they will first encounter an acoustic deterrent and an air bubble curtain. The bubbles will serve as a physical barrier and also remove small fish trapped under barges or carried in their wake.

The fish that make it past this curtain will then go through an engineered channel that will extend the length of the current lock, at the end of which persistent carp will come up against an electric barrier like the one in Romeoville. After that, an array of acoustic deterrents will keep the carp at bay by creating painful sound waves. On the other side, a flushing lock will send any remaining larval fish and eggs back downstream.

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