Tiny mussels pose huge threat to Idaho waters
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REXBURG — Boating season is just getting started, and the biggest ecological threat Idaho could face might be clinging to the bottom of your boat, said state representative Dell Raybould.
House Joint Memorial 4, passed by Idaho legislators in late March, urges the federal government and western states to fight the spread of Zebra and Quagga mussels.
The legislation asks for $8 million dollars, out of the $20 million set aside to fight this invasive species, to be given to the four northwestern states. The money would be used to set up more boat inspection stations and to increase the number of hours those inspection stations would be able to operate.
“This is probably one of the biggest things that faces Idaho right now, to our economy and our lives here and our welfare,” Raybould told a group of Madison County Republicans at a meeting on Wednesday.
The National Wildlife Federation reports, in its five-year life span one female zebra or quagga mussel will produce around five million eggs, at least 100,000 of those will reach adulthood.
Since their introduction to the Great Lakes in the 1980s these tiny mussels have been hitching rides on the bottoms of boats and spreading throughout the US wreaking havoc on native water life. They eat the plankton native fish populations need to survive and promote toxic algae blooms.
Perhaps more alarming for Idahoans is this mussel’s ability to destroy water pipes, such as the ones used in irrigation systems for farms and hydroelectric dams across the state.
“Think of the agriculture we have in eastern Idaho,” Raybould sad. “If they were in our streams and we were pumping that out into our irrigation systems they would grow and they would attach themselves to the main line, to the sprinkler systems, they’d get in the nozzles and the sprinkler heads — it would be an absolute disaster.”
The NWF says once the mussels are established in a body of water it is impossible to completely eradicate them.
“Just before the session let out, there was a boat coming in from Nevada, coming up through Twin Falls, that was covered with mussels,” Raybould said. “They caught it, they put it in quarantine. You get it in your water there’s no way to kill them. Nothing has been discovered, so far, that would kill the larva of those quagga mussels so that they could be exterminated.”
Raybould said it was unclear when Idaho would get the federal money sought by House Joint Memorial 4.