LAKEPORT — More questions than answers are on the table in the ongoing discussion of how to prevent the invasive quagga and zebra mussel species from infesting Lake County”s waters.
In a Monday meeting, the Mussel Team, a committee of county officials and citizens, discussed hiring an outside vendor to administer the boat inspection sticker the county currently administers. The program would include posting inspectors around the clock at three major road access points to the county. To pay for the estimated $1 million cost to afford the checkpoints, the team discussed the possibility of requiring a boat owner to get a new inspection sticker every time the boat re-enters Lake County.
“The (sticker) program has to be possibly one of the best in California, but re-inspection has to be done. That”s the only thing missing,” Jason Roberts, an invasive species environmental scientist with the California Department of Fish and Game (DFG), said.
Currently, a boater visiting from outside the county can get an inspection sticker as long as the boat is dry, drained, free of the mussel and its veligers, and as long as it did not come to Lake County from an infested water body such as Lake Havasu or Lake Mead. Lake County residents can get a sticker that allows them to launch a boat indefinitely once the sticker is placed.
Thirteen Lake County businesses offer screenings, where an employee asks the boat owner where the boat came from and where it is registered, and decides whether or not the boat needs to be inspected based on the owner”s answers.
If a boat is determined to be at risk during an inspection, Lake County Water Resources Department Director Pam Francis said the boat would be sent to a decontamination station. Roberts said if mussels or larvae are found on the boat, the inspector should call the DFG and a warden would be sent out to quarantine the boat. He said the boat would have to dry before being decontaminated and then inspected again.
Francis said the Lake County Board of Supervisors decided to sell two out of four decontamination stations back to the vendor. Locations proposed for the stations include Hillside Honda in Lakeport and the Moose Lodge in Clearlake Oaks.
The team proposed a $10 limit for boat inspection stickers. In addition, the team proposed that a business should not be able to add more than 20 percent in profit to the county”s total cost for a boat inspection. No fee schedule was formally proposed for re-inspection, but suggestions ranged between $5 and $30.
“I don”t see why people wouldn”t pay $5 or $10 for an inspection sticker when they”re already paying to drive here,” Roberts said.
Fish and Wildlife Advisory Committee Chair Greg Giusti suggested a flat fee per year for frequent visitors.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com.
