I was first converted to the cause of saving the environment when I read Rachel Carlson”s “Silent Spring” in 1962. Carlson, a marine biologist, warned of the dangers DDT, among other things. The environment has been a concern for me ever since. So, my sentiment is to save our lake.
In considering the issue, I wondered if there was another place with a lake with similar issues as ours that had successfully mitigated environmental degradation, and if so, how they did it. I heard Jim Steele allude to Lake Balatan, in Hungary. So, I looked into what folks were able to accomplish in that Hungarian tourist location.
The effort there has been successful in algae mitigation. That effort is local, federal and international (There is a U.N. agency that aided the effort). No such scheme exists in Lake County.
Hungary is landlocked: apparently, Lake Balatan is one of the few water sport destinations in that country.
And, basically, tourism is their economy, so the health of Lake Balatan is seen as vital by the inhabitants of the area. (How critical is tourism to Lake County, and what percentage of that tourism is dependent on the lake, is an unknown. So, it is difficult to figure out if the cost of saving the lake, assuming it could be saved, would exceed its value as a tourist destination).
There are 255,000 people around Lake Balatan, and a full time staff of 27 people working on maintaining tourism and the condition of the lake. Not so in Lake County. Moreover, even with the commitment, staff, funding, and political will to save Lake Balatan there is a fear that global warming and drought will pose a new threat to that lake, and the issue is being studied currently there. So, we face the same unknowns here regarding drought as they face at Lake Balatan.
Lake County does not have the money, the staff, the resources, the cooperation of all levels of government, nor its inhabitants the sense of desperation required to pull off an effort such as that accomplished at Lake Balatan, nor is S going to supply them. In other words, while the sentiment to save the lake is admirable, in practical terms, measure S would result in “throwing good money after bad.”
There also remains the issue of the Quagga mussel. Quagga is an invasive species. A single mussel can spawn a million offspring a year. Horrifyingly, Lake Superior, which has been infested, now has an estimated four quadrillion Quagga mussels.
S will fund, at least in part, the ongoing effort to prevent the Quagga, which has invaded lakes in California, and involves an inspection and sticker program. However, as Clearlake Council candidate Quincy Jackson has pointed out, there are hundreds of private docks that are not able to be policed. A boat owner without a sticker might get a citation, but, by then, it would be too late. And, although there are government programs to educate pilots of seaplanes, how do we know that the “Splash” did not bring some unwelcome stowaways?
According to an oceanographer (with a doctorate) that I heard speak, the Quagga, should they invade, would end up killing most of the other life in the lake, and, ironically, Clear Lake would be clear, and bass, as well as bass fishing, would become extinct. Worse, the Quagga would most likely clog pipes, similar to the way plaque build-up clogs arteries, and the water purifying plants would suffer expensive damages. (If we spend money on anything, it should probably be to plan how to deal with such an eventuality).
Now we can connect some dots: The army core of engineering project to bring back some of the 85 percent of the wetlands that have been destroyed, would reportedly block 40 per cent of the nutrients that pollute the lake. However, apparently funding has stalled the project. So, we have the government spending money on war to protect oil instead of funding conservation projects, and that war is to protect fossil fuel, the burning of which exacerbates global warming and the drought, and consequently, our problems with the lake.
S is an illusion, based on good intent as I said, but as Shakespeare reminds us in Romeo and Juliet, “Good intentions pave the way to hell.”
Nelson Strasser, Lakeport
