Friant Water Authority ramps up mussel awareness ahead of Memorial Day weekend
Friant Water Authority is planning an “aggressive” outreach campaign before Memorial Day weekend in an effort to keep golden mussels out of several eastside reservoirs, including Millerton Lake.
The campaign includes social media and handouts urging boaters “Clean, Drain and Dry” all watercraft and trailers. This is especially important for boaters who have visited the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, ground zero for the golden mussel infestation.
Friant is working with California State Parks and the Bureau of Reclamation to remind boaters to check and clean watercraft before launching into Millerton Lake, or any water body, said Katie Duncan, water resources engineer at Friant Water Authority’s April 30 board meeting.
Friant is also working on similar messaging with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which manages dam infrastructure at Pine Flat, Kaweah Lake, Lake Success, Lake Isabella though Duncan said nothing is confirmed yet.
Kaweah Lake park ranger Hayden Doyel said signs with photos of golden mussels are posted at docks and on bulletin boards around the lake to warn boaters of the risk of transporting any invasive mussel, including quagga and zebra.
“We are monitoring for all mussels, but we haven’t found anything yet,” he said.
The golden mussel, a prolific bi-valve mollusk, hitchhiked across the ocean into the Delta at least two years ago. It is native to Southeast Asia. Since then, it has spread throughout the state, clogging infrastructure in the state’s vast water delivery network, including the southern portion of the Friant Kern Canal near Arvin where Arvin-Edison Water Storage District has already spent $2.8 million fighting the mussels.
The Kern County board of supervisors will consider declaring a state of emergency May 12. To the north, San Joaquin County already has declared a local emergency.
The outreach campaign is part of a larger control plan enacted by Friant in April, when the board approved spending $408,000 for monitoring and research with consulting firm Dudek.
Duncan said Friant is optimistic that Millerton’s lower temperatures and calcium concentrations may limit the mussel’s ability to take up residence. That doesn’t mean the golden mussel veligers, or larvae, can’t be transported to local tributaries or canals where warmer temperatures are more conducive to infestation.
SJV Water is an independent, nonprofit news site covering water in the San Joaquin Valley, www.sjvwater.org. Email us at sjvwater@sjvwater.org
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