It has the qualities of a sci-fi thriller: “The Blob Meets the Creature from the Black Lagoon.”

Unstoppable alien life form invades Inland Northwest and turns pristine water bodies to deadly slime! You’ll gasp! You’ll shudder! You’ll never go in the water again!

It’s not fiction, though. It’s Eurasian milfoil. And while it might not keep you on the edge of your seat or win any Academy Awards for costumes or special effects, it has frightening consequences for tourism, recreation and the quality of life here.

In Boise, Idaho lawmakers have a chance to do something about the threat. One of them, state Rep. Eric Anderson, R-Priest Lake, has been a fervent champion of legislative action, but time is running out. The session ends in two weeks.

What’s so scary about a plant?

Eurasian milfoil is a non-native aquatic species that probably arrived in North America as an ornamental pond or aquarium plant, and somebody released it into the environment. It’s been in the wild in the United States since at least the early 1940s.

First noticed in the Washington, D.C., area in about 1942, Eurasian milfoil had reached areas as dispersed as Arizona, California and Ohio within a decade. It’s a problem now in Maine, Wisconsin and Michigan. It showed up in Meridian Lake in Western Washington in 1965 and now exists in more than 100 Washington lakes, including Liberty and Eloika Lakes in Spokane County.

In Idaho, Eurasian milfoil covers more than 4,000 surface acres of water, more than half of it in North Idaho. A recent study by the University of Idaho estimated as much as 250,000 surface acres of water are susceptible to infestation.

Eurasian milfoil starts growing early in the season, gets a head start on native plants, and blocks out the light they need to grow. Everything up the food chain, including fish, suffers the consequences. The stalks grow 12 to 20 feet tall, forming dense matting both in and atop the water, making water recreation difficult and in some cases dangerous. Besides being unsightly, Eurasian milfoil becomes a breeding ground for mosquitoes, posing additional public health issues.

When parts of it break off, they drift easily with any current, sink and take root again, establishing a new growth. It’s notoriously transported from one lake to another on boats and trailers. Lake Coeur d’Alene now has 250 acres of milfoil. Hayden Lake has 750 acres – 18 percent of its surface area.

According to Matt Voile, noxious weed program manager for the Idaho Department of Agriculture, it could cost $4 million a year for the next three years to apply a battery of methods to bring the pest under control. Because it is so easily transported, however, Idahoans must make an ongoing commitment to keep it in check. In Washington, the state Department of Ecology estimates government agencies and private parties spend $1 million a year to contain Eurasian milfoil.

Anderson has been such a relentless nuisance on the subject in Boise that he jokes about being called “Morty Milfoil.”

If his fellow lawmakers respond appropriately to his warning, they can deal with two nuisances at the same time.