[Water_news] 3. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: WATERSHEDS - 6/25/08

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

June 25, 2008

 

 

Invasive mussels create contention at Vail Lake

Riverside Press Enterprise- 5/25/08

By Jeff Horseman  

A water district and the owner of Vail Lake Village & RV Resort are in a dispute over efforts to prevent a destructive breed of mussel from contaminating the lake.

 

The Rancho California Water District is seeking an injunction to allow its staff to inspect boats at the lake for signs of quagga mussels, an imported menace that is starting to afflict bodies of water in Southern California.

 

A hearing on the injunction is scheduled for Friday in Riverside County Superior Court.

 

While he does not want mussels to invade Vail Lake, resort owner Bill Johnson had objected to the district's plans to limit certain boat traffic during the week. The Temecula-based district now plans to allow all boats to use Vail Lake every day.

 

The district relies on the lake to replenish its groundwater supplies.

 

Johnson's attorney, Craig Johnson, says the district wants to deny his client money he needs to fight the district in another lawsuit over who controls the lake east of Temecula.

 

Quagga mussels, which arrived on boat hulls from Europe in the late 1980s, clog pipes and alter ecosystems by consuming plankton sought by small fish.

 

Once the mussels arrive, they cannot be eliminated. Quagga mussels have been found at Lake Skinner 14 miles north of Vail Lake and in many San Diego County reservoirs.

 

Catching a Ride

While mussels have not been detected in Vail Lake, district officials worry the pests may be brought in on the hulls of boats from infested lakes.

 

The district Board of Directors at first sought to ban boats from Vail Lake that were not solely used at the lake, said Craig Elitharp, district director of system operations.

 

After talking with Bill Johnson, the district decided to ban outside boats during the week but allow them on weekends if district staff inspected them, Elitharp said. The first inspections were on Memorial Day weekend and only one boat was turned away, said Rich Ottolini, district water quality supervisor.

 

But the following Monday, the resort refused to allow district security staff on the premises to make sure no outside boats were on the lake during weekdays, Elitharp said. The district got a temporary restraining order June 16 allowing its staff to inspect the boats.

 

In court papers, resort attorney Craig Johnson said the state Department of Fish and Game, not the district, had the power to limit lake access.

 

There was no urgency in the district's request for a restraining order since mussels were first discovered in Lake Mead in January 2007 and unlike other infested lakes, Vail Lake is not fed by the Colorado River system, said Craig Johnson, who is not related to Bill Johnson. #

http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_S_mussels25.34c0309.html