Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — Invasive mussels pose an obstacle to the Washington County Water Conservancy District as it seeks to build a 140-mile-long pipe system to bring water from Lake Powell to southern Utah municipalities, district officials said.
Washington County's population has outgrown its water supply, which comes almost entirely from the Virgin River, said David Jessup, assistant operations manager for the water district. The community can't grow much more without another water source, he said.
"Water shouldn't be the restricting factor in growth," Jessup said. "Utah owns that portion of (Lake Powell) water in the upper basin of the Colorado system, so we should use it. If Utah doesn't use the water, they'll lose it to other states."
But not everyone believes a pipeline is the answer and dispute the claim that there's not enough water to sustain the population:
"Perhaps these mussels are doing Washington County residents a favor because the county has plenty of water available for future growth, according to numerous sources including the Legislative Audit of May 2015," said Zachary Frankel, executive director of Utah Rivers Council.
"These Chicken Little claims by the water district are simply bogus efforts to waste billions of taxpayer dollars on the unnecessary Lake Powell Pipeline," he said.
The district hopes the project can gain funding and approval to break ground by 2020 and be completed by 2030. Ongoing investigation and research is being conducted now by Washington County Water Conservancy District chemists to decide how to keep zebra and quagga mussels from restricting access to Lake Powell's water supply.
These mussels, carried from their native habitat in Ukraine and Russia to the Great Lakes in the 1980s, have reached fresh water bodies through the U.S., said David Hammond, an environmental scientist with Earth Science Laboratories. The mussels reproduce rapidly and cling onto structures, making walls with their bodies.
Mussels found in Lake Powell in May 2014 could easily line the edges of the pipes, said Cole Hulse, a chemist with the water conservancy district. The pipes, 69 inches in diameter, would not have to be fully clogged to cause practical and economic problems, he said.
"Those mussels can grow inches inwards, and they're not a smooth surface," Hulse said. "If you have even a fraction of a millimeter restriction on a pipe that long, it makes a noticeable difference in efficiency, so even a tiny infestation … would be a huge problem."
Because mussels are microscopic in their primary stages, physical restraints may not inhibit them from entering pipes, Hulse said, making it essential for the district to use chemical restraints.
Hulse and Jessup on Monday attended Hammond's summit for EarthTec, one possible treatment. EarthTec, which treated Herriman's Blackridge Reservoir for algae in August, has been used to kill mussels in states across the nation.
EarthTec generally kills mussels within four to six days, but water temperature plays a huge factor in effectiveness, Hammond said. In the fastest example, mussels were extinguished in 24 hours, but it took 28 days to reduce the mussels by 80 percent in the slowest example.
The product has limitations. Hammond said he wouldn't recommend using it to treat more than a few hundred acres of water.
[The culprit. Quagga Mussels found on a cabin cruiser after being slipped at Wahweap for 3 months. #quaggakillers #quaggamussels #lakepowell #cleandrainanddry #protectourfreshwater #wahweapwarden #musselbusters](https://instagram.com/p/6snRGtudHr/) A photo posted by @utah\_wahweap\_warriors on
Over 24 miles of Lake Powell was infested in May 2014, according to the Utah Department of Wildlife Resources. Hulse said he'd be willing to look into EarthTec, but that he's not set on it because he wants to experiment with many methods.
Unlike Nevada's mussel infestation at Lake Mead, which resulted in the state paying millions in treatment remedies, southern Utah officials are aware of the mussel issue before using the water as a source, which is a huge advantage, Hulse said.
"We're in a good position right now," he said. "We're going to make a good use of the 15 years that we have before the water starts flowing to have a plan in place."
Tori Jorgensen is a Deseret News intern and current communications major at Southern Utah University. Find her on Twitter @TORIAjorgensen. Email: vjorgensen@deseretnews.com.
