States seeking federal aid to fight mussels
Boat checks could stem spread
BOISE – Regional energy planners for four Western states are asking Congress for help building a stronger line of defense against what some officials call an unfolding environmental disaster – an invasive mussel that is clogging Colorado River reservoirs like Lake Mead outside Las Vegas after ravaging the Great Lakes region.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council guides power and environmental policy in Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington, all of which are frustrated because boats continue to leave Lake Mead in Nevada and Arizona contaminated with quagga mussels.
It’s seeking $2 million in federal aid to add watercraft inspection and decontamination stations to intercept boats carrying these rapidly multiplying, thumb-size mollusks that could wreak havoc on Columbia River hydroelectric dams, farmers’ irrigation systems and lakes prized for recreation. The water district in Los Angeles already estimates up to $15 million in annual expenses tackling quagga infestations that have damaged its aqueduct and reservoir system extending from the Colorado River.
“A second line of defense is not as good perhaps as stopping them at Lake Mead, but it’s something we absolutely need to do when we can’t depend on interdiction efforts,” Phil Rockefeller, one of two Washington state appointees on the council, said Tuesday at a meeting in Boise.
In 2012, a $1 million appropriation pushed by U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, was directed to support “mandatory operational inspection and decontamination stations” at sites including Lake Mead.
But only about half the money has gone toward inspection and decontamination work, according to the council, prompting Rockefeller to complain that federal agencies including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Park Service aren’t sufficiently invested in fighting the scourge.
Researchers don’t know exactly how the mussels arrived at Lake Mead, where their numbers have increased tenfold to 1.5 trillion since their 2007 discovery.
Given the mussels’ rapid proliferation on the Colorado River, Idaho state Rep. Eric Anderson said stopping contaminated boats before they go elsewhere is the best way to combat the mussels’ spread.
This year alone, nearly 80 infested boats have been stopped on the borders of Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington, most coming from Lake Mead.