LAKEPORT — The Lake County Water Resources Division updated the Lake County Board of Supervisors (BOS) Tuesday on activities related to quagga mussels and the Middle Creek Marsh Restoration Project.
Public Works Director Scott De Leon and retired California Department of Fish and Game biologist Jim Steele updated the BOS on the quagga mussel prevention program. De Leon said the mussels are a risk to the lake and any waters downstream.
De Leon said the mussels are something the division works on every day, but it is not getting help from the state and is taking care of the threat itself. He said the division is doing what it can and hopes to make it tougher on boaters by instituting bigger fines.
The possible installation of inspection stations at entrances to the county is not an ideal solution but would be the best way to tackle the problem, De Leon said. He said he agreed with the Clear Lake Advisory Committee (CLAC) recommendation that the BOS pursue any and all efforts to convince state and federal authorities to develop a statewide quagga prevention effort.
De Leon said the program needs help with funding as sales of boat inspection stickers do not cover the cost of the current program. Visitors purchase inspection stickers in higher numbers than residents, he said.
De Leon said various educational methods about the mussels, such as placing quagga mussel displays at tackle shops and creating a website where people can obtain information, have increased in the last year.
Steele said if mussels are found in the lake, the lake will be shut down to boating. Steele said such a move would only buy time before the mussels spread downstream.
De Leon pointed out a few problems with the current prevention program.
The program needs to develop a method for decontaminating boats, he said, adding that putting full-time inspectors at public launch ramps to limit access to the lake and creating decontamination stations at launch ramps around the lake could solve the problem.
De Leon estimated it would cost $60,000 per year per launch ramp inspector job.
Regarding the Middle Creek Marsh Restoration project (which has been on-going for 20 years), De Leon said it is being held up at the bureaucratic level by the federal and state governments as well as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (COE).
He said an $8 million grant from the state was recently reinstated but only $1 million of the grant is available for the project. He said the money is contingent on the sale of bonds by the state.
There is a conflict between the federal Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the COE regarding red-legged frogs, according to De Leon. The FWS insists on a survey of red-legged frogs be conducted in the marsh, he said.
Steele said he is a qualified surveyor and would do the survey for the department.
One reason the survey hasn”t been conducted by the FWS is the COE has “rights of entry” to the area, though they have expired, De Leon said.
De Leon said the division offered to create their own “rights of entry” forms for the project but the COE insists on using their own forms, which he called “vague and open-ended.” He said without a new rights of entry agreement, nothing can be done.
De Leon said the county needs to meet with the COE with a defined agenda and resolve any issues to move the project forward.
Kevin N. Hume can be reached at kevin.n.hume@gmail.com or call directly 263-5636 ext. 14.
