[Water_news] 1. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS - Top Items for 10/17/07

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment

 

October 17, 2007

 

1.  Top Item -

 

 

State shares its notes on quagga mussels

Southern California agency representatives gather here

San Diego Union Tribune – 10/17/07

By Terry Rodgers, staff writer

LA MESA – Quagga mussels have invaded the county's reservoirs, threatening to clog pipes and damage the ecosystem of drinking water repositories.

The fast-growing mollusks soon will feed on everyone's pocketbook.

 

“Everyone's going to feel it in the form of higher costs for everything from electrical power to water and sewage treatment,” said Bill Zook, an expert on invasive species and a consultant for the California Department of Fish and Game.

 

Yesterday, Zook played the role of professor during a quagga seminar at Lake Murray. About 70 reservoir managers, water maintenance officials and game wardens from across Southern California came to the session.

 

They learned where to look for quaggas, including how to inspect docks and boats for the fingernail-sized mollusks.

 

In coming months, hundreds of other water officials will be taught how to control quagga mussel populations as part of a statewide effort to keep the mollusks from spreading beyond Southern California.

 

In addition, state officials are training 24 dogs to help game wardens and agricultural agents detect quaggas at border inspection stations and reservoirs throughout California.

 

Quagga mussels clog water intake pipelines and screens at water treatment plants and can foul pumps and motors exposed to water. Irrigation pipes are also vulnerable.

 

The mussels consume vast amounts of tiny phytoplankton that would otherwise support fish and other creatures in the aquatic ecosystem.

Quagga mussels are native to Russia and Ukraine. They were first found in North America 18 years ago in Lake Erie, having hitchhiked to the the United States in the ballast water of oceangoing ships.

 

They are so hardy and pervasive that they have pushed out zebra mussels, a related species and previous invader, throughout the Great Lakes.

 

Researchers at Cornell University have estimated that more than $5 billion has been spent in the United States on efforts against quagga mussels, Zook said.

 

“The problem will be even bigger here (in California) because of the warm water temperature and abundance of water delivery systems,” he added.

 

Since being discovered in January at Lake Mead, the mussels have spread downstream into California reservoirs that receive untreated water from the Colorado River.

In San Diego County, the mussels have been found at four reservoirs: Lake Dixon, San Vicente, Lake Murray and Lower Otay.

 

The San Diego County Water Authority has formed a task force and is almost finished drafting a regional plan to control quagga mussels, said Gary Eaton, the authority's operations manager.

 

Inspectors have checked miles of the region's major pipelines and no quaggas have been detected, Eaton said. #

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20071017/news_1m17quagga.html