A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
August 23, 2007
3. Watersheds
QUAGGA MUSSELS:
Mussels put squeeze on water officials - North County Times
Cost questions put damper on Salton Sea plan - Riverside Press Enterprise
INVASIVE AQUATIC WEED:
CDFA makes major hydrilla find in Clear Lake - Lake County Record Bee
QUAGGA MUSSELS:
Mussels put squeeze on water officials
By Gig Conaughton, staff writer
The quagga mussel is a fingernail-sized Ukrainian shellfish that required billions of dollars to clean up in the
Hours later,
San Diego County Water Authority officials said they're creating a group to develop a plan to control the mussels, which attach themselves to everything from docks, boats and engines, to pipelines, valves and other equipment and could foul pumping stations and waterways.
The mussel has also been discovered in
The quagga was first discovered in
Ever since, water and wildlife officials have been scurrying to find and kill the mussel and its water-current-riding microscopic larvae in the hope of keeping it from gaining a foothold in
But despite those efforts, which included twice draining and super-chlorinating the 242-mile Colorado River Aqueduct, the mussel has spread all the way south to
Stunned officials, meanwhile, say the shellfish's numbers are increasing tenfold every two months.
"If somebody were to put this scenario together for the way they've spread in
Several sources have reported that officials in the
Regional water officials said Wednesday that it was impossible to tell how much it could cost to clean it up here. Metropolitan Water District,
"It's going to be expensive, no question," said Rick DeLeon, head of Metropolitan's quagga control program.
But DeLeon said that most of the damage the mussels created in the
DeLeon and Gary Eaton, director of operations for the San Diego County Water Authority, said that the mussel would not be able to reproduce enough to choke off the large water pipelines that deliver
"We have large-diameter pipelines," Eaton said. "But we have pumps and they would cause us additional maintenance headaches."
Meanwhile, officials in
But
Cowan said Water Authority officials showed city and water agency personnel photos of quaggas and the damage they could do earlier this year. He said one photo was of a beach on the East Coast where the tiny crustaceans were piled high -- "like broken glass" -- along the waterline.
"We're kind of spooked," Cowan said. "I mean, if these quaggas are half as nasty as they're telling us, its something we really don't want in our lakes."
Water agencies in
Eastern spokesman Peter Odencrans said that the mussel could still get into the agency's systems through its connections with Metropolitan's pipelines.
"At this point, we haven't found anything in our system," he said. "We're just keeping our fingers crossed."
Meanwhile, officials rejected suggestions that maybe state and regional agencies were not moving fast enough to fight the mussel -- a fight that has now moved from the hope of eradicating the mussel to learning how to contain it.
Cowan said the state Department of Fish and Game had done a great job of sending information to boaters throughout the state.
DeLeon said Metropolitan had already built stations to inject thousands of gallons of larvae-killing chlorine into its aqueduct system.
Part of the problem, officials said, is that the quagga seemed to be reproducing even faster than they expected.
"Everybody is moving as fast as we can, but it's moving faster," said Guisti of the Department of Fish and Game. #
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/08/23/news/top_stories/1_02_528_22_07.txt
Cost questions put damper on
Riverside Press
By Jim Miller, staff writer
Legislation by state Sen. Denise Moreno Ducheny, D-San Diego, would release $47 million in voter-approved borrowing to begin paying for the first phase of a sea restoration effort announced in May.
The plan would reduce the ailing desert lake straddling
Wednesday, the Assembly Appropriations Committee held the bill. The panel will act on it and dozens of other measures later this month.
A committee analysis of the legislation underscores sentiments among some in the Assembly that the project might be a money pit.
Construction alone would cost an estimated $8.9 billion over 75 years.
Operations and maintenance from 2036 to 2078 would cost an estimated $6.1 billion in 2006 dollars, according to the analysis.
"Given other budgetary priorities, both in environmental and other policy areas, should the Legislature start down the road to spending several billion dollars on the
Lawmakers in 2003 passed a bill that, among other things, directed the state to craft a restoration plan as part of a settlement of disputes over the use of
Since then, about two-thirds of the Assembly has changed.
"This is something that is of statewide importance," Ducheny said Wednesday.
"It's important to get a lot of people to communicate that message to the Assembly, the speaker and others." #
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_H_salton23.3e5f16a.html
INVASIVE AQUATIC WEED:
CDFA makes major hydrilla find in Clear Lake
By Tiffany Revelle, staff writer
LAKE COUNTY -- Pam Francis told the
Francis is the county's deputy director of Public Works in its Water Resources Department, and said the call from a local CDFA crew chief came too late to put the item on the board's agenda. So she presented the information in the public input portion of the meeting.
As of Aug. 20, reported Francis, the CDFA had found 18 new hydrilla plants had been found in
Hailing from
Record-Bee outdoor columnist Terry Knight said the prolific hydrilla can grow to an are of over 40 acres in size within 24 hours.
The plants are spawned by tubers the size of a navy bean, said Francis, which lay dormant for long periods of time in the mud on the bottom of a water body, waiting for the right conditions to sprout.
And sprout it has. As of Aug. 20, three plants were found at the outlet of State Park, two were found in Buckingham, three around the city of
"The good news is that they've sprouted into plants so we don't have to worry about them. They haven't formed tubers yet," said Francis, adding that it would take three weeks for the plants to become mature enough to produce more tubers. "The plants will be eradicated before they have a chance form new ones," said Francis.
She noted that CDFA would be stepping up its eradication efforts in the areas where the plants were found, although she wasn't sure what those efforts would entail.
"It would be nice to minimize boating traffic in that area because hydrilla reproduce by fragmentation when boat propellers chop them up," she said. Something boaters need to be watchful of is that the weed doesn't get accidentally transported on watercraft from one water body to another.
CDFA, noted Francis, uses air boats, which do not chop up the weed and distribute it. They will be looking for the extent of the infestation in order to determine the best strategy for treating it. #
http://www.record-bee.com/local/ci_6695037
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