LAKE COUNTY — Deputy Director of Water Resources Pam Francis said she will present a “Lake County invasive mussel plan” to the Board of Supervisors March 18 to address the threat of the invasive quagga mussel, a fast-spreading mussel no larger than a finger nail that first appeared in the Great Lakes and is now present in 11 bodies of water in California, including the entire Colorado River system and L.A. aqueduct. The mussel first appeared in the state in January 2007 in Lake Havasu.
Since then, more than 84,000 vessels were stopped at state border checkpoints, told to drain and dry the boats and of those, 104 were confirmed to have the mussels, according to Department of Fish and Game (DFG) spokesperson Alexia Retallack, lead communications coordinator for the quagga mussel.
The mussel costs the Great Lakes an average of $500 million per year to control infestations at power plants, water systems, industrial complexes, boats and docks.
According to Retallack, in Lake Eerie alone, U.S. Congressional researchers estimated that infestation of the zebra mussel, a cousin of the quagga, cost the power industry $3.1 billion between 1993 and 1999, with an additional economic impact of more than $5 billion during that same period.
“Whatever we can do now, we”re looking at preventing those costs. An ounce of prevention equals a pound of cure?whatever money we invest in preventing the spread will save us billions of dollars down the line,” Retallack said.
She said the only authority DFG has is to authorize the closure of a body of water once it is already infected. The mussel is transported one of two ways: when a mussel larvae, called veliger, floats from its source to other waters, or through human transportation via watercraft. The mussel spread throughout the Colorado River system after veligers located in Lake Mead above the Hoover Dam floated down the river.
“It”s so big in the Colorado River we can”t treat it, because the source is upstream in Lake Mead, but San Justo is looking like it”s an isolated introduction?there”s a possibility of treating that one,” Retallack said.
San Justo is the only body of water in the state with the zebra mussel, which was transported from over 1,500 miles away.
“The authority about what to do lies with local agencies. And they are all taking very different approaches. Lake County has been very proactive and has a vested interested because of the lake?we are very happy to provide biologists and advice,” Retallack said.
Francis said a lot of ideas about how to prevent the spread of quaggas to Clear Lake have been discussed in Lake County, some of them very draconian.
“Some are saying shut down the lake, or shut it down to bass fishing altogether. A lot of ideas are very politically difficult because they have severe economic impacts. Another idea is to have decontamination stations at all borders. But does it really make sense to have little guard shacks at each of the 58 counties borders? No. What really makes sense it to quarantine [watercraft] and engage people to be part of the solution,” Francis said.
She said because Clear Lake is a public lake, the county cannot shut it down.
“The difference between this lake and Lake Casitas is it”s privately owned by the water agency. It was built to supply drinking water and they have the right to protect their water source,” Francis said.
Officials in Ventura County voted Tuesday to close Lake Casitas to all boats not permanently moored in the lake. That same day, the managers of privately-owned Westlake Lake also voted to temporarily close the body of water to all outside boats while they figure out how to keep the mussel at bay.
Francis said the county has received no money from the state to help bolster its public education fund, but did get and distribute 10,000 pamphlets supplied by the DFG.
The county Board of Supervisors allotted $10,000 last year to quagga mussel prevention that has been spent on signage, and pamphlets that have been put in all the resorts and government buildings. One DFG quagga-sniffing dog out of six already trained has been assigned to the county. That program originated from an idea by Lake County DFG Lt. Lynette Shimek, coordinator of the new state-wide K-9 unit that currently has six additional dogs in quagga mussel training.
In addition, signs have been installed at all boat ramps on the lake and 11 quagga traps have been installed in the lake. A slide in the carousel at the Lakeport Cinemas that plays before a movie begins displays information about the quagga.
Francis said in her presentation she will recommend to the Board of Supervisors that wash stations be set up in the county. “The boats would need to be steam cleaned. It could be integrated into car washes, set up at marinas or it could be a business opportunity and people could have it done at Hillside [Honda].”
She said the decontamination system idea at each of the four major routes into Lake County is flawed for two reasons.
“This is an on-going, permanent thing we”re going to be dealing with for the rest of our lives. It takes $1 million a year to man each station, we need police enforcement to do that, who we haven”t talked to, we need Caltrans right of way and traffic control, and it will be two to three years before it can happen. We”re looking for things we can do tomorrow to try and stop the spread. We feel the way we can do that is through local businesses and resorts.”
Contact Elizabeth Wilson at ewilson@record-bee.com
