LAKEPORT ? Out-of-county boaters should be required to have their boats screened monthly and possibly inspected and decontaminated in order launch in Lake County, the Invasive Species Council agreed Thursday.
The council will present the protocol for quagga and zebra mussel prevention and vessel reinspection to the Lake County Board of Supervisors at 9:45 a.m. Tuesday. The council and board aims to implement the program Jan. 1. Quagga and zebra mussels kill off native species, damage boats and piers and can block water pipes used for agriculture and drinking water. According to authorities there has never been a lake where the quagga mussels have been successfully eradicated.
The red screening sticker program will remain the same for vessels registered in Lake County.
The protocol would require non-resident boats to get monthly screenings to check whether the boats have been in infested waters or counties and if the vessels are clean and dry. Out-of-county boats that pass would get bright-colored sturdy bands that designate use for a certain month. Monthly screening for out-of-county vessels would include a walk-around to ensure the boat is clean, drained and dry.
Boaters will continue to sign an affidavit promising their responses are true and they haven”t been in mussel-infested waterways and counties.
“It”s a wide-open honors system,” Melissa Fulton of the Lake County Chamber of Commerce said.
If boats don”t pass screening, the screener would call a certified inspector to look underneath the vessel and in all areas that may contain water to verify the boat doesn”t have veligers, baby mussels, or visible mussels.
Boats found at risk that have not passed decontamination would be denied access to the lake.
Jason Roberts, environmental scientist for the California Department of Fish and Game, said with this program, “We”re making it 12 times better.”
The Department of Fish and Game will only quarantine vessels found to have adult mussels.
The program would be enforced in Clear Lake, Lake Pillsbury, Indian Valley Reservoir, the Blue Lakes and Highland Spring Reservoir.
Screening costs $10 ? $7 goes to the county for administrative costs and $3 goes to the screener. Inspection costs range from $15 to $40 depending on the size of the boat.
The council agreed vessels that don”t easily carry veligers should be exempt from the standards, including canoes, kayaks, rowboats, float tubes, rafts, wind surfers and boogey boards.
University of California adviser Greg Giusti asked that council members and concerned citizens come to the Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday in the County Courthouse at 255 N. Forbes St. in Lakeport.
Contact Katy Sweeny at ksweeny@record-bee.com or call her directly at 263-5636, ext. 37.
