Developers of an Asian carp-processing plant in the Mississippi River town of Grafton are getting $1.9 million in help from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity for the project.
That includes a $1.4 million low-interest loan to American Heartland Fish Products, with the remaining money for infrastructure improvements related to the plant.
Grafton, with about 700 residents, is located about 40 miles northeast of St. Louis.
The carp are an invasive species that has migrated up the Mississippi and Illinoisrivers and on the verge of invading the Great Lakes, where scientists say the carp could out-compete native fish for food.