LAKEPORT — Congressman Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena) sat down with several Lake County department chairs and staff members to discuss with and inform the representative about invasive species Monday afternoon.
The group of about half a dozen people met at the county Board of Supervisors chambers at the Lake County Courthouse and talked about species including the quagga and zebra mussels, starthistle and the dwindling numbers of Clear Lake hitch.
Thompson, who founded the bipartisan Congressional Invasive Species Caucus in July, was successful in passing a bipartisan amendment requiring a federal study on impacts of invasive species in the House on Oct. 24. He also co-authored legislation, the Protecting Lake Against Quagga Act, that would add quagga mussels to the national invasive species list.
“Usually we wait until it”s a crisis, then it becomes unsolvable,” Thompson said. “We need to start on the ground floor.”
While Clear Lake does not had quagga mussels, the county has taken precautionary measures because the mussels can damage the lake”s ecosystem, clog water intake structures, such as pipes and screens, as well as colonize on boats and ramps.
Since they were first discovered in the late 1980s more than $5 billion have been spent in the country because of the invasive quagga mussels, Thompson said.
Many times they travel in boats from one lake to another, Water Resources Director Scott De Leon said, and Lake County began a sticker program in 2008, which has certified inspectors check boats before entering the lake at the cost of $10 for residents per year and $10 per month for non-residents. If a boat carries quagga mussels, it is decontaminated free-of-charge.
De Leon and his staff are also working on Measure E, which would implement a .5-percent sales tax and would be added in the June 2014 elections. Money raised would go to more preventative measures to keep the lake free of invasive species.
However, one problem the county faces comes from the state. A bill passed has now authorized the California Boating and Waterways Commission, as well as the Department of Motor Vehicles, to charge an additional quagga mussel fee of $8 per year for a two-year sticker when registering a boat. Funds raised would go to quagga mussel prevention grants for counties; however, De Leon said a substantial portion most likely goes to the sticker and there is no protocol for grant applications. Furthermore, his biggest concern is that the sticker grants the boat permission to enter any body of water in the state, and people no longer want to purchase a sticker from the county.
The group also discussed the possibility of the Clear Lake hitch being placed on the endangered species list on both a state and national level.
Claudia Street, director of the Lake County Farm Bureau, raised concerns that because there is no known specific cause of the number of hitch falling, the listing might not help and could hurt other projects concerning the lake.
“Here we are worried what (Endangered Species Act) standards aren”t actually going to help hitch population,” she said.
Berenice Quirino is the assistant editor for Lake County Publishing. She can be reached at 263-5636, ext. 42 or at bereniceq@record-bee.com.
