Montgomery County, New York the county has a total area of , of which is land and (1.8%) is water. Montgomery County is located in the central part of the state, west of the city of Schenectady and northwest of Albany. The Erie Canal runs through Montgomery County parallel to the Mohawk River, connecting to the Wood River to the west, which leads to Lake Ontario. Overall, the canal connected Great Lakes shipping with the Hudson River and the port of New York on the Atlantic Ocean. Several towns and villages developed along the canal, as it carried much trade and passenger traffic during
Asian carp introduced. The United States Environmental Protection Agency is also concerned about the possibility of Asian carp migrating to the Great Lakes. In 2002, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers completed an electric fish barrier in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, the only navigable aquatic link between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River drainage basins. The initial fish barrier was used as a demonstration project to study the design's effectiveness. Following positive results, construction began on a second, permanent barrier in 2004. In addition to the canal, the corps has identified 19 sites in five additional states, from Minnesota