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SALT LAKE CITY — For the last five years, government biologists and boaters themselves have fought to keep an invasive and devastating mussel out of Utah waters. Despite those efforts, quagga mussels turned up in Lake Powell this week.
While the tiny creatures don't look like trouble, when they breed and spread, damage soars into tens of millions of dollars. The mussels can damage the ecosystem for fish, as well as human-built water systems.
"These mussles like to just cake up on each other until they plug a pipe," said Larry Dalton, aquatic invasive species coordinator for the Utah Department of Wildlife Services.
"It's pretty disturbing. We've been fighting back," he said. In fact, the state spends $1.6 million a year to try to keep the mussels from invading.
Quagga mussels arrived in the Great Lakes in 1987, and in Nevada's Lake Mead in 2007. Since then, any boat arriving at a Utah lake, including Lake Powell, must be certified mussel free.
Quagga mussels are freshwater mollusks that typically have a zebra-like pattern on their shells. They are alien to North America, originating in Russia and Turkey. They entered to the United States in 1987 and have been spreading ever since.
The spread of quagga mussels will potentially cost millions of dollars by clogging engines and encrusting boats and facilities, disrupting the food chain, disrupting sport fishing, and littering beaches with sharp smelly shells.
Source: National Park Service
Every major marina has a decontamination station, but that's not always enough. Early this week, National Park Service divers found 14 adult quagga mussels attached to boats and docks at the Wahweap Marina.
"Somehow or another, mussels have slipped into (Lake Powell). They may have come attached to a boat that got missed," Dalton said.
The mussels weren't close enough together to mate, and all were removed.
"It puts us on alert all over the state of Utah, because they could be moved by an unsuspecting boater," Dalton said.
Since the state started its decontamination program in 2007, there has been about 85 percent compliance from boaters. By law, only boats coming from contaminated waters need to be cleaned off before they're put into clean waterways, but the state is urging all boaters to decontaminate their boats to help stop the march of the quagga mussels.
"We're really counting on the boaters to roll up their shirt sleeves and do good here, and we think they will," Dalton said.
The park service will look for more mussels at Lake Powell. There's no infestation yet, but if some were found, there may be more. Keeping the spread in check just became critical for Utah.
