Muscling a fight against mussels

The battle to keep invasive zebra and quagga mussels out of Lake Coeur d’Alene and other Idaho waterways is going to be expensive — but critically important, state officials say.

“If the Legislature agrees, we’ll spend more money in the next fiscal year on mussel prevention than ever before,” said Ray Houston, the state’s chief budget analyst for natural resources.

Houston estimated a $3.9 million price tag for the fiscal year that begins in July, with $2.7 million from the general fund and $1.2 million from prevention stickers.

The sticker money comes from boat fees, which range up to $22 for motorized out-of-state watercraft.

The fee for in-state motorized craft is $10, and it’s $7 for non-motorized vessels.

“We have to bear the (legislative) cost,” Houston said, “because these little mussels can clog pipes, dams and irrigation intakes. They ruin beaches. They cause all kinds of damage. And once they’re here, they’re almost impossible to get out.

“The damage in places like Lake Mead in Nevada and Arizona has been really severe. So far we’ve been fortunate in Idaho — but we have to keep up the prevention effort, because it wouldn’t take much for the mussels to turn up somewhere in the state.”

Meanwhile, the Idaho Legislature apparently won’t wait for the new fiscal year to remain vigilant.

The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee this week approved $710,000 in emergency funding for the remainder of this current fiscal year, which ends June 30.

The emergency money — tacked on to what remains of $2.2 million from the general fund that was approved last year and $300,000 in sticker income already in hand — will be used to add three new boat inspection stations, allow dawn-to-dusk checks and hire three new employees.

“We want to have these stations in operation by the end of this month,” said Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint and co-chair of the committee. “Waiting isn’t an option.”

The struggle against allowing mussels into Idaho has reached a crucial level, with an announcement just over a year ago that water tests found larval-stage mussels in Montana’s Tiber Reservoir.

Houston noted one of the three new stations will be at Rose Lake on Highway 3.

“That one will take care of the back door to Lake Coeur d’Alene,” he said. “We’ve got the Cedars inspection station on I-90, but boat owners had an option to go around and reach the lake another way. Now that entry will have an inspection point.”

Idaho’s war against invasive mussels began seriously in 2009, when former state Rep. Eric Anderson of Priest Lake — now a member of the Idaho Public Utilities Commission — led a charge to convince legislators and members of the Department of Agriculture that Idaho and the entire Northwest had become vulnerable to mussel infestation.

The problem has existed for years in the Great Lakes, but Anderson argued the mussels had reached the West.

“We have a lot of boats that come from Lake Mead, so having the mussels arrive here is just a matter of time,” Anderson said.

“Quite honestly, we were just plain lucky that we didn’t have an infestation before 2009 when there was open discussion of the problem,” Houston said. “Even then, the Department of Agriculture wasn’t sure exactly what direction to take. Finally, it became clear that boat inspections were effective and so that’s what we’re doing.”

The state has 15 inspection stations, with the additional three beginning operation very soon.

“Where we’re in real jeopardy is with snowbirds coming back to Idaho once the weather gets nice,” Houston said. “A lot of them are coming from Lake Mead, Lake Powell and other places in the Southwest that have been overwhelmed with mussel problems.

“These boats have to be checked. Some people are going to complain about back-ups with only two people to check each boat, but the problem is worth the trouble because water testing just isn’t enough.

“If you test your water and find larval-stage mussels, it’s already too late.”