Know your invasive plants: give them an inch and they’ll take an acre
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 17, 2008 at 8:40 am
From the Santa Barbara Independent:
Next week, July 21-25, is California Invasive Weeds Awareness Week. While no projects to eradicate plants or educate the public are planned in our area, it isn’t because there aren’t any invasive plant species threatening our native ecosystems. According to the California Horticultural Invasives Prevention (Cal-HIP), a coalition of horticulturists, botanists, and nursery people, there are at least 10 plants that have become so noxious that they are recommended to be removed from nurseries and eradicated wherever they are growing. These species have escaped the confines of gardens and are reproducing rampantly in the wild to the detriment of native vegetation.
Invasive plants spread beyond our gardens and out into natural areas, where they can grow so fast, they crowd out native vegetation, block streams and cause flooding, and produce so much biomass that they can create fire hazards. Most of these plants have little or no value as food or habitat for the native birds and species. They can grow so thick that the area becomes impassable, thus restricting or eliminating recreational opportunities.
Many kinds of invasive plants are also incredibly thirsty, such as the tamarisk or salt cedar. A single tamarisk can suck up 73,000 gallons of river water a year. It is very salt tolerant, excreting excess salt from the tips of it’s branches and depositing it on the ground, further intensifying the salinity of the soil. The tamarisk has become the dominant streamside vegetation throughout the southwest, occupying more than a million acres of riparian habitat.
Invasive plants are not ugly; some of them are very attractive, and sought after as additions to gardens, such as red fountaingrass or pampass grass. Home Depot and other nurseries (knowingly or unknowingly) sell invasive plants, and there are no regulations in place or legislation pending at this time. Instead, the California Invasive Plant Society is working with nurseries, gardeners and the public to educate them on invasive plants, encouraging them to use other alternatives.
For a rundown with pictures from the Santa Barbara Independent, click here. For more information on invasive plants, visit the California Invasive Plant Council website at www.cal-ipc.org, or the Plant Right website at www.plantright.org.
Study finds Great Lakes invaders wreak $200 million damages per year
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 17, 2008 at 6:49 amFrom Reuters News:
Invasive species that have hitched rides into the Great Lakes since they were connected to the sea nearly 50 years ago are causing $200 million a year in damages, according to a study published on Wednesday.
The figure is conservative and does not include damage done to the Canadian economy or other parts of the United States where some of the invaders have traveled by water, said the report from the Center for Aquatic Conservation at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.
Since the St. Lawrence Seaway opened in 1959, 57 species have been carried in via oceangoing vessels, usually in ballast water, the report said.
But if the parade of organisms, which includes the zebra mussel and round goby, stopped tomorrow, the costs “would unfortunately continue” because the damage estimates are based on what has already happened, said David Lodge, an ecologist who directs the Notre Dame center.
The report said that as of 2006 the losses to sport and commercial fishing and tourism and impacts on water treatment and supplies was at least $200 million per year. Lodge said the study did not go beyond 2006 but it could be assumed the costs were continuing.
“Considering that new invasive species are being discovered every year, and species already present are spreading, it is likely that the losses experienced in 2006 will increase in following years,” the study said.
Water use facilities suffered $27 million in damages, but the biggest losses occurred from the loss in recreational fishing. Read more from Reuter’s News by clicking here.
Invasive species threaten Great Lakes
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 8, 2008 at 8:21 pmFrom NPR:
The blue-green waters of the Great Lakes seem cleaner and clearer than ever before — but while cleaner is good, clearer isn’t necessarily so. “It’s a bad thing because the water looks clean because it’s becoming sterile,” says Cameron Davis, president of the Alliance for the Great Lakes, at a recent visit to a beach in Evanston, Ill.
He says zebra mussels and other invasive species that have worked their way into the Great Lakes filter out the food, making the water clear. At the same time, he says, “it’s really stripping the food base out of the food web, such that we’re really in danger of unraveling the food chain we have in this region.”
Zebra mussels first invaded the Great Lakes through the ballast water of ships from Europe about 20 years ago. Colonies accumulate on the water intake and discharge pipes of power plants, municipal water plants, irrigation systems and even on boat hulls and motors, causing frequent problems. But they wreak havoc on ecosystems because they consume huge amounts of phytoplankton, like algae, effectively starving populations of native fish and other water wildlife.
And now scientists say that another invasive mussel has arrived that might even be doing worse damage to the lakes. The thumbnail-sized quagga mussel, also carried in ballast water, is native to the Russian area of the Black Sea and first began appearing in the Great Lakes about a decade ago. Quagga populations tripled between 2005 and 2007 to a quadrillion, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates. Quaggas now carpet the bottom of Lake Michigan and parts of the other Great Lakes. To some extent, they are even crowding out the zebra mussels.
The result is fewer and thinner fish being caught by both commercial and recreational fishermen. Read the full text of this article from NPR by clicking here. In a related story also from NPR, find out how dogs are being used to sniff out mussels by clicking here.
Quagga infestation of Lake Michigan hurting fish population and fouling shores
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 6, 2008 at 6:58 amIs this in our future? From the Chicago Sun Times:
On summer days like these, Lake Michigan sparkles in the Midwestern sunshine. But beneath that beautiful blue expanse, an environmental war is raging, born of a quadrillion life-sucking little critters — quagga mussels.
Twenty years after the zebra mussel arrived in Great Lakes, experts now say the quagga mussel — a creature the size of a thumbnail that has quietly spread until it now carpets the depths of Lake Michigan — is proving to be even more disruptive to the ecosystem.
“A lot of people have never heard of them,” said Tom Nalepa of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. But Nalepa says the number of quagga mussels more than tripled between 2005 and 2007, to 1,000,000,000,000,000, a quadrillion.
The effect of the quagga invasion can be seen in fewer and thinner fish, clogged intake pipes at power plants and clearer water. While the latter might be misinterpreted by casual observers as a sign of Lake Michigan’s health, more sunlight beaming deeper into the water is causing growth of a slimy, smelly plant called cladophora, which is washing up on beaches such as those in the popular Chicago getaway, Wisconsin’s Door County.
Read the full text of this article from the Chicago Sun-Times by clicking here.
Boaters, beware: Hunt is on for mussel invaders
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 3, 2008 at 7:44 amFrom the Sacramento Bee:
Boaters heading for area lakes this Fourth of July should expect to give an accounting of where they’ve been and what they may have picked up along the way. Authorities are on the lookout for quagga and zebra mussels, invasive species known to hitchhike from one body of water to another by attaching themselves to boat trailers, hulls, engines and steering components.
Agencies from Lake Tahoe to Folsom Lake are taking measures to keep the mussels – which no one knows how to get rid of – out of their waters. Efforts range from educating the public through billboards and brochures, to surveying boat owners and inspecting watercraft before they’re launched.
“We have 13 inspectors out at various launches inspecting and doing risk assessments,” Nicole Cartwright of the Tahoe Resource Conservation District said last week. She is part of the Lake Tahoe Aquatic Invasive Species Working Group.
She said decontamination stations will operate around the lake this weekend to handle watercraft found to harbor mussels.
Read more from the Sacramento Bee by clicking here.
CVWD to begin treating for Quagga mussels—before they arrive by boosting chlorine in the water
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 25, 2008 at 6:19 amFrom MyDesert.com, two very similar stories. The first:
Coachella Valley Water District will be using considerably more than a single ounce of prevention when it begins introducing liquid chlorine into the Coachella Canal, scheduled to begin July 3—a preemptive strike designed to prevent destructive quagga mussels from infesting and colonizing the waterway and its delivery system.
The district plans to release 4,050 gallons of chlorine daily into the canal a short distance from where it branches off from the All America Canal, about 10 miles west of Yuma, AZ, near the United States border with Mexico.
CVWD personnel have been monitoring the canal closely for the mollusks since they were discovered at Lake Mead in January 2007. The 123-mile Coachella Canal is free of the invasive, non-native mussels so far, but several were found in February this year in a desilting basin at Imperial Dam. Colorado River water passes through those facilities before being diverted first into the All American Canal, which serves Imperial County, then further downstream into the Coachella Canal.
Chlorine has proven effective elsewhere in killing quagga mussel veligers, the free floating larvae produced by the mollusks. A single adult quagga mussel releases as many as 10,000 larvae at a time, up to one million in a single reproductive season.
Although the concentration of chlorine will be sufficient to kill the larvae, the chemical will dissipate about a mile downstream from where it is introduced into the water, at what is known as a Parshall flume. Turbulence at the flume, which is used to measure the canal’s flow rate, is conducive to blending the chlorine with water.
The first of CVWD’s approximately 1,100 canal water customers is nearly 90 miles further downstream—and there are about half a dozen irrigators served by Imperial Irrigation District more than 35 miles away—so the chemical will not be present in any water deliveries. About 300,000 acre-feet of water is diverted into the canal annually.
The second story, which briefly discusses adding the chlorine, and then includes this, similar to the story posted yesterday:
Water officials from elsewhere testified in Washington, D.C. about the invasion of the mussels at a hearing of the House Natural Resources Committee Subcommittee on Water and Power. Water authority officials complained that the quagga mussel, a thumb-sized mollusk, can clog water pipes and facilities and wreak havoc on habitats.
“It’s significant. They grow very quickly,” said Ric De Leon, water systems operations manager for the Metropolitan Water District in Southern California, which includes Riverside County. “If they spread beyond where they are, it will be costly.”
The officials urged Congress to provide federal funding for more research, to develop a regional plan to address the problem and help agencies rid their water systems of the mussels. De Leon said his agency spends $10 million to $15 million a year to address the problem.
“We are coping with the problem - for the moment,” said Ronald Zegers, director of the Southern Nevada Water System, who called it the “most serious nonindigenous” pest introduced in North American freshwater systems.
Read the full text of the first article from MyDesert.com by clicking here; the second article by clicking here.
Officials ask Congress for help to rid Southwest of mussels
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 24, 2008 at 7:16 pmFrom MyDesert.com:
California and Nevada water officials called on Congress Tuesday to act quickly to stop the spread of Quagga mussels that are threatening local waterways throughout the Southwest. “It’s significant. They grow very quickly,’’ said Ric De Leon, water systems operations manager for the Metropolitan Water District in Southern California, which includes Riverside County. “If they spread beyond where they are it will be costly.’’
De Leon and others testified about the invasion of the mussels at a hearing of the House Natural Resources Committee Subcommittee on Water and Power. Water authority officials complained that the Quagga, a thumb-sized mussel, can clog water pipes and facilities and wreak havoc on habitats.
The officials urged Congress to provide federal funding for more research, to develop a regional plan to address the problem and help agencies rid their water systems of the mussels. De Leon said his agency spends $10 million to $15 million a year to address the problem.
“We are coping with the problem – for the moment,’’ said Ronald Zegers, director of the Southern Nevada Water System, who called it the “most serious non- indigenous’’ pest introduced in North American freshwater systems.
Read more from MyDesert.com by clicking here.
Mussels’ last meal; Scientists want to add bacteria that are lethal to invasive mollusks to water at Hoover or Davis dams, but they say tests will be done to ensure safety
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 20, 2008 at 6:30 amFrom the Las Vegas Sun:
They are so common they’re swimming in your spoiled milk, growing on the cheese left too long in the back of the fridge. But if bacteria were about to be released into your drinking water supply, would you worry?
The Bureau of Reclamation says you shouldn’t. Its scientists want to set Pseudomonas fluorescens loose at either Hoover Dam or Davis Dam (near Laughlin) this fall as a cavalry charge in what has so far been a losing battle against the invasive quagga mussel. Quaggas, which can clog water intakes and damage pumps and other machinery, hitched a ride from their native Ukraine to the Great Lakes about 20 years ago and were found to be infesting Lake Mead last year.
Water authorities and power plants now use chlorine and other chemicals to rid pipes of the clinging critters. But the quaggas can recognize the chemical as bad for them, and when they do, they close up and often avoid ingesting enough of it to kill them, according to Pam Marrone, founder of the California organic pesticide company working on an alternative.
There are other drawbacks to using chemicals against quaggas, including the detrimental effects on the environment. Chlorine and similar chemicals also can form cancer-causing carcinogens when combined with organic matter in the water supply, according to Peggy Roefer, regional water quality program manager for the Southern Nevada Water Authority.
Enter the bacterium that guards against root rot in the typical garden plot. Turns out it produces a toxin that kills the quagga, and its equally troublesome cousin, the zebra mussel. Mussels feed on the bacterium and don’t realize it’s deadly until it’s too late. Even dead Pseudomonas fluorescens kill the quagga, according to Dan Malloy, a research scientist at the New York State Museum in Albany who searched for the right bacterium for years.
He found the quagga killer to be harmless to several native fish and shellfish species tested, as well as to humans, Malloy said.
“We have been working with this bacterium for well over a decade. It’s everywhere. It’s already in the drinking water,” Malloy said, adding that his job is to work to preserve the environment, not pollute it. “I am a tree-hugger devoted to reducing the use of poisonous pesticides.”
In tests performed at New York power plants more than a year ago, the bacteria succeeded in killing up to 90 percent of zebra mussels and 70 percent of quagga mussels. And the bacteria may be even more successful at killing quagga and zebra mussels in the Southwest, because their kill rate is higher in warm, hard water.
Read more from the Las Vegas Sun by clicking here.
Tiny, clingy and destructive, Quagga mussel makes its way west
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 17, 2008 at 6:56 amFrom the New York Times:
Kneeling at the edge of the dock, Wen Baldwin began hauling on a length of nylon rope that disappeared into the depths of Lake Mead. One after another, an odd assemblage of objects — a water bottle, a chunk of concrete, a pair of flip-flops, a steel anchor — emerged from the emerald-green waters. A living blanket of tiny, striped mussels covered each one. “The conditions here are ideal for these things, absolutely ideal,” said Mr. Baldwin, 70, a retired design engineer and a National Park Service volunteer.
The mussel-coated debris is unmistakable evidence of an event occurring silently and largely out of sight — the colonization of the Colorado River by the quagga mussel, a fingernail-size Eurasian bivalve with an astonishing sex drive and a nasty reputation for causing economic and ecological havoc. Like the closely related zebra mussel, the quagga can cling tenaciously to hard surfaces, like the equipment of the many hydroelectric and water-supply plants along the lower Colorado. “They’re going to be all over the pipes, all over the intakes,” said Gary L. Fahnenstiel, senior ecologist with the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “It’s going to be devastating.”
Dr. Fahnenstiel ought to know. The quagga has carpeted much of the Great Lakes, largely displacing the better-known zebra. Its invasion of the Colorado, presumably after crossing the Rockies on recreational boats hitched to trailers, foretells major disruptions not just for utilities, but also for the entire ecology of the lower river.
By stripping nutrients and microorganisms from the water, the mussel could do grave damage to a wide variety of species, including small invertebrates, fish and birds. “This is one bad hombre,” Dr. Fahnenstiel said. “It’s almost your worst-case scenario for affecting the entire food chain.”
Read the full text of this story from the New York Times by clicking here.
Searching for solution to mussel invasions
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 6, 2008 at 6:34 amFrom the Nevada Appeal:
When zebra mussels were found in January in San Justo Reservoir, about 250 miles away from Lake Tahoe in California, state and local agencies made the decision to close the lake to boating. “Boating on there is not really heavy,” said Alexia Retallack, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Fish and Game who has been working closely with the reservoir. “For their purposes, they were more concerned with the spread.”
San Justo is one example of how a water body infected with invasive mussels has handled the creatures. Quagga and zebra mussels are cousins in the same species family that have similarly devastating effects. Originally from Europe, they have no natural controls in America and can multiply rapidly, destroying the economy and ecology of a body of water, from boating to fishing to beaches. They never have been successfully eradicated from a body of water.
Closing the San Justo was a viable solution because of the reservoir’s size and number of access points, Retallack said. But the control method for a body of water, once infected, is dependent on many variables, including size, recreation uses and point in the water system. “It depends, because each water body is in a unique position, there are so many variables,” she said.
Once established, there is no way to eradicate them. Well, one way: a body of water in an abaondoned rock quarry in Virginia was infected with Zebra mussels in August of 2002, and 174,000 gallons of potassium chloride was injected into the water over a period of three weeks. But such techniques aren’t really an option for a lake the size of Lake Tahoe - or most other bodies of water.
But other solutions might be on the horizon:
Zebra and quagga mussels are controlled in their native Europe because of the natural predators in that environment that don’t exist in North America.
However, some researchers are looking at biological solutions to quagga mussels, and one has discovered a small part of the solution. Dan Molloy, director of the Cambridge Field Laboratory of the New York State Museum, and a team of scientists have been researching a biological control for two decades. Recently, they discovered a soil bacteria that kills zebra and quagga mussels while not harming other organisms in the ecology.
The product was developed for power plants in lieu of chemicals, but research could be done on how it would fare in reservoirs, Molloy said. “The U.S. Bureau of Land Reclamation is interested in the potential for this,” Molloy said. “Now, people are interested if it could be used in the West in open water.”
Read the full text of this story from the Nevada Appeal by clicking here.
Invasive species threatens Lower Colorado livelihood
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 6, 2008 at 6:21 amFrom the Yuma Sun:
Fast-growing invasive species are rapidly displacing native plants along the lower Colorado River and could threaten livelihoods, wetlands experts said.
On Thursday experts gathered in downtown Yuma to discuss options on how to stem the growth. “That’s probably the single most important waterway because it supplies 30 million people with drinking water,” John Laccinole said. “Plus it supplies agribusiness in Imperial and Yuma counties, so we need to take care of it.” …
Arundo donax is a 15-foot perennial reed that resembles bamboo. It chokes riversides and stream channels, and reduces habitat for wildlife. It was introduced to Los Angeles in the 1820s for erosion control in drainage canals and has now spread to many warm coastal freshwaters of the U.S., said Laccinole. “It could substantially deplete the Colorado so we have to take action,” Laccinole said. “It has no support for wildlife habitat, it kills aquatic life and becomes the dominant species.”
Salt cedar is another thirsty plant that can guzzle up to 200 gallons of water per day, Laccinole said. It was introduced to the United States in the 1800s as a source of firewood and erosion control. It has now taken over 5 million acres nationwide, he said.
One of the threats of invasive species is they create a monoculture that will not allow any other vegetation to grow in the same area, Mitch Ellis, project leader of the Southwest Arizona Natural Wildlife Complex, said Laccinole.
The Southwest Arizona Natural Wildlife Complex has entered into a public-private partnership with two firma to help rid the area of the invasive plants. Find out more from the Yuma Sun by clicking here.
Invasion of the mollusks; Quagga and zebra mussels pose a threat to California
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 4, 2008 at 5:56 am
From the Fresno Bee:
Central California lakes and waterways are being threatened by tiny mollusk invaders that pose as hitchhikers. Because quagga and zebra mussels are spread primarily through human-related activities, the Department of Fish and Game is asking for cooperation from boaters to prevent these destructive species from gaining a foothold in the San Joaquin Valley.
Many other areas of the state have been on high alert since last fall, when quagga mussels were discovered in numerous places along the Colorado River drainage, including Lake Mead, Lake Havasu and several San Diego-area reservoirs. Closer to home, zebra mussels were found inhabiting San Justo Reservoir outside Hollister in January. Although these close cousins, which belong to the same family of shellfish, have yet to turn up in the Valley, their history suggests it’s only a matter of time.
“Right now there’s not really anything keeping people from coming up here and spreading these mussels,” said Mark Watson, the quagga/zebra mussel biologist for DFG Region 4, which is headquartered in Fresno. “People need to be educated.”
Once established, fast-reproducing quagga and zebra mussels can destroy a lake’s ecology by overwhelming vital elements of the food chain. They also can clog waterway infrastructure and damage boats.
Quagga and zebra mussels are typically about the size of a fingernail but can grow up to 2 inches in diameter. After attaching to hard surfaces, including metal, glass, plastic and wood, they feed themselves by consuming microscopic plants and animals from the water. Each adult mussel can filter up to one liter of water per day.
“They filter out all the food, and the native fish don’t have anything left to eat,” Watson said. “It basically changes the whole ecosystem.”
Read more from the Fresno Bee by clicking here.
Tahoe mussel inspection gets agency enforcement; inspections become mandatory
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 2, 2008 at 6:03 amFrom the Reno Gazette-Journal:
Boaters launching into Lake Tahoe will face mandatory inspections of their vessels beginning today as land-use regulators pursue an urgent program to prevent invasive mussels from becoming established in the lake.
The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency on Wednesday approved new regulations prohibiting introduction of invasive aquatic species and requiring that boats and other watercraft launched into the lake be subject to inspections. Violators could face penalties of $5,000 or more.
Voluntary inspections started at public boat launches around the lake in mid-May, but the action approved Wednesday gives the effort some teeth, officials said.
The program aims to prevent the introduction of quagga or zebra mussels into Tahoe’s waters, a possibility experts said could come with devastating results. “We have to become a little more adamant that this is a serious problem,” said Shelly Aldean, Carson City appointee to TRPA’s governing board.
Quagga mussels, previously found only in the Midwest and Northeast, were first discovered in Southern Nevada’s Lake Mead in early 2007 and have spread to other parts of Nevada, Arizona and Southern California. In January, zebra mussels turned up in a California reservoir only 250 miles from Lake Tahoe.
Closely related, both types of mussels could cause widespread problems were they to make Lake Tahoe their home. The rapidly reproducing mollusks could quickly disrupt the lake’s ecosystem, clog drinking water intakes, encrust boats, foul docks and litter now-pristine beaches with sharp and stinking shells.
Read more from the Reno Gazette-Journal by clicking here.
Quagga mussels: It only takes one to wreak havoc on Lake Tahoe
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 1, 2008 at 7:16 amFrom the North Lake Tahoe Bonanza. this editorial:
It’s difficult to overstate how damaging quagga or zebra mussels could be if they infiltrate Lake Tahoe. Imagine the beautiful beaches encrusted with shells so sharp that it makes a sunset stroll impossible. Boaters would find their favorite recreation ruined, as the mussels clogged their feed lines and engines and created drag on the hull. Anglers would no longer be able to fish, as the mussels would destroy the lake’s food chain.
And after the quagga and zebra mussels ruined the beaches, boats and life in the lake, it would destroy the water itself. As the fast filtering creatures increased lake clarity, sunlight would penetrate deeper into the water, creating algae blooms that could give then lake an unpleasant odor and color. The mussels have never been successfully eradicated from a large body of water.
In short, it would be devastating.
The editorial calls for mandatory boat inspections, as opposed to the voluntary inspections currently underway.
Read the full text of this editorial from the North Lake Tahoe Bonanza by clicking here.
Quaggas could lead to federal money for sewer improvements
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 30, 2008 at 6:00 amFrom Lake Havasu’s Today’s News-Herald:
The infestation of quagga muscles in the Colorado River may be the key to getting federal money for sewers.
During Thursday’s meeting of the Colorado River Regional Sewer Coalition, CRRSCo lobbyist Terry Bracy said Congress has heard information about how the two water issues relate.
“Rep. (Grace) Napolitano, D-Calif., chaired a meeting of the Water and Power Subcommittee where Metropolitan Water District talked about the quagga muscle,” Bracy said via phone. “During that meeting we explained what we’re doing and we raised the question if the quagga food chain is influenced by nitrates.” Bracy said Bureau of Reclamation scientists confirmed that nitrates play a factor in the food chain of the invasive muscle. And that means CRSSCO is on the radar of more members of Congress, especially those whose districts are served by the Colorado River.
“The quagga is a hot issue and our relationship makes us a little hotter,” Bracy said.
The quagga mussel has already been found in Lake Mead, Lake Havasu, and Lake Mojave, as well as in the intake pipes for Metropolitan’s Colorado River Aqueduct & the Central Arizona Project.
Meanwhile CRSSCo officials – led by Lake Havasu City Mayor Mark Nexsen and Bullhead City Mayor Jack Hakim – will be making a trip to Washington D.C. next month to lobby support for a bill establishing ongoing federal funding for sewer work in communities along the river.
“We’re hoping to come away with sponsors for the bill,” Nexsen said. “Getting the Interior Department on board is one hurdle and the three water agencies have been very helpful in that regard.”
The proposed bill is the Southern Colorado River Quality Protection Act, which would require cooperative planning for water and wastewater systems along the lower Colorado River and the federal government to cost share in any facilities at a 65 percent level. Federal funding would be retroactive to Jan. 1, 2004.
Read the full text of this article from Lake Havasu’s Today’s News-Herald by clicking here.
Muscling up: Agencies battle to keep mussels out of Lake Tahoe
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 26, 2008 at 6:11 amFrom the Nevada Appeal, part 2 in a 4-part series on invasive mussels & Lake Tahoe:
A $1.3 million battle to keep invasive mussels out of Lake Tahoe’s waters is being waged by local, state and federal agencies. It officially began May 16, when 13 inspectors were sent out to different public and private boat launches around the lake to conduct boat checks when owners approve.
On Wednesday, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Governing Board will consider an amendment that subjects all boats to mandatory inspection. If the board passes that measure, all boats will be required to be inspected if asked, or face a $5,000 fine if they choose to launch without complying with an inspection. If inspectors are not available, boaters can launch without a boat inspection.
These inspections are the first line of defense against the devastating mussels infiltrating Lake Tahoe.
The inspections are a joint effort between several agencies. Thirteen inspectors and two dogs will be conducting the inspections:
The inspectors will be stationed at all public and some private launch points on the lake and will ask boaters questions about their recent boating habits to determine if a further inspection is needed. “We’ll be asking questions like ‘where has your boat been?’ or ‘how long has it been out of the water?’” said Nicole Cartwright, a conservation planner for the invasive species program for the TRCD. “We’ll also be educating them about the risks.”
Inspectors will also occasionally be using dogs trained to smell out mussels. There are 12 dogs stationed in California by the state Department of Fish and Game and two of them will be in the Tahoe area, department spokeswoman Alexia Retallack said.
While the inspectors will have no enforcement capabilities, they hope to keep the lake safe from aquatic species, Cartwright said. If inspectors do find a mussel on a vessel, they will notify local law enforcement if a boater refuses to cooperate, said Dennis Zabaglo, senior environmental specialist and watercraft program manager for TRPA.
But Zabaglo and others say they hope a public outreach campaign will educate boaters about the danger of mussels, and encourage them to comply with the rules. “We are relying heavily on the public’s want and desire to keep these mussels out,” he said.
Read the full text in this article from the Nevada Appeal by clicking here.
DWR Reminds Boaters & Water Users: Don’t Move a Mussel
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 23, 2008 at 6:11 am
From the Department of Water Resources:
As California’s water recreation season begins, a state multi-agency taskforce reminds boaters to do their part to help thwart invasive Quagga and Zebra mussels. Boats are the primary transporters of the aquatic species and recreationalists on State Water Project water bodies should take special care to properly clean, drain and dry vessels.
“Invasive mussels pose a serious threat to our water systems and recreational facilities,” said California Secretary for Resources Mike Chrisman. “Over the Memorial Day holiday and throughout this boating season we ask for the assistance of water users to prevent the spread of Quagga and Zebra mussels in California.”
The taskforce – comprised of California’s Department of Fish and Game, Department of Water Resources, Department of Parks and Recreation and Department of Boating and Waterways – urges boaters to take action to protect the state’s many water bodies from Quagga and Zebra mussel infestation.
Invasive aquatic mussels are primarily transported by watercrafts and boaters should follow these steps to inhibit their spread:
- -Inspect all exposed surfaces - small mussels feel like sandpaper to the touch.
- -Wash the hull of each watercraft thoroughly, preferably with high-pressure hot water.
- -Remove all plants and animal material.
- -Drain all water and dry all areas.
- -Drain and dry the lower outboard unit.
- -Clean and dry all live-wells.
- -Empty and dry any buckets.
- -Properly dispose of all bait.
- -Wait five days and keep watercraft dry between launches into different fresh waters.
These steps are designed to thwart spread of the invasive mussels, safeguard boats and preserve high-quality fisheries.
Click ‘read more’ to read the rest of this press release. Read more
Groups ask Congress for funds to rid waterways of mussels
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 16, 2008 at 5:37 amFrom MyDesert.com:
A coalition of water authority officials from Western states asked Congress on Thursday to channel more than $20 million into projects to research and kill an invasive mussel threatening the region’s waterways, including those in the Coachella Valley. “This is a very, very frightening situation for a lot of us,” said Rep. Grace Napolitano, D-Santa Fe Springs.
The group, which included officials from water authorities in Nevada, California and Arizona, made its case to Senate and House lawmakers and their staffs. The coalition urged lawmakers to set aside funding, including $3.3 million for research of the quagga, a thumb-sized mussel that can clog water pipes and facilities and wreak havoc on habitats. They also asked for funding to develop plans and help agencies affected by the infestation.
“We have to act quickly,” said Ricardo De Leon, water system operations manager for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.
Read the full text of this story from MyDesert.com by clicking here.
Hatchery victim of mussels; Quagga infestation to be costly burden on operation, officials say
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 9, 2008 at 2:22 pmFrom the Las Vegas Review-Journal:
They’ve already caused operators of dams and hydroelectric plants on the lower Colorado River system to brace for millions of dollars in maintenance and repair costs. And they’ve frustrated boaters in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area as millions of them cling to vessel hulls and engine cooling water intakes.A nd now, invasive quagga mussels, which were discovered in Lake Mead’s Boulder Basin on Jan. 6. 2007, are starting to clog up the works at the Willow Beach National Fish Hatchery.
The federal hatchery, where thousands of rainbow trout and endangered fish are raised, is on the Arizona side of Lake Mohave, 14 miles southeast of Hoover Dam.
“The problem is that anywhere there is no (strong) flow, quagga mussels will establish themselves in the screens, pipes, wood boards and walls of the raceways,” hatchery manager Mark Olson said. As he spoke Wednesday, one of his co-workers for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Mark Yost, used a power washer to blast quagga mussel shells off a drained concrete channel, or raceway, where rainbow trout once swam.
The problem stands to be as prolific as the reproduction rate of the pesky mollusks themselves. Since the first quagga shell was found at the hatchery a little more than a year ago, millions more have multiplied.
Olson said the hatchery, where 300,000 rainbow trout and 20,000 endangered razorback suckers and 35,000 bonytail chub are raised, faces a problem that could cost $2 million to $5 million to fix if the facility is converted to well water or a treated water supply that is free of quaggas, unlike raw water from Lake Mohave that is used for most hatchery operations.
The quagga problem in the Colorado River basin could be even worse than the Great Lakes:
Because of ideal conditions in the lakes on the lower Colorado River system with the right mix of food, calcium, dissolved oxygen and water temperature, quaggas have a reproduction rate three times that of those in the Great Lakes region. They reproduce six times a year instead of two, and a single female lays as many as 1 million eggs.
Once colonies are established, they can clog water lines and cause pumps to overheat.
Of the $600,000 that’s budgeted annually to operate the 45-year-old hatchery, no money is devoted to dealing with clogged pipes and equipment, Olson said. The problem “is indefinite,” he said. “I don’t see it going away. They didn’t go away in the Great Lakes. We just have to come up with a management strategy that works and stick with it.”
Read more on this story from the Las Vegas Review-Journal by clicking here.
Tahoe boats will face inspections for invasive mussels
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 8, 2008 at 11:47 amFrom the San Diego Union-Tribune:
Boaters at Lake Tahoe will be facing random inspections at public launches to ensure their vessels aren’t harboring any invasive mussels that could threaten the lake’s ecosystem. Spot checks of vessels at all of Tahoe’s public boat-launching sites begin May 16 and will last throughout the summer boating season. The goal is to try to prevent the introduction of quagga or zebra mussels.
“They’re heading our way, and we can’t be too careful about this,” said John Singlaub, executive director of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency.
Boat inspections are essential in the fight against mussels being waged by TRPA, the Tahoe Resource Conservation District and fish and wildlife agencies from Nevada and California. If quagga or zebra mussels were to make Tahoe home, officials said, big trouble would follow. The mussels can overrun an aquatic ecosystem, disrupting the food chain and substantially damaging native species. They can clog water intakes and conduits, damage boat engines and produce widespread economic damage.
Read more on this story from the San Diego Union-Tribune by clicking here.