Memorandum
Date: March 9, 2021
To: The Honorable Moke Simon, Chair, Lake County Board of Supervisors
From: Scott De Leon, Water Resources Director
Subject: Presentation of the Lake County Quagga Mussel Prevention Program Update
Executive Summary: (include fiscal and staffing impact narrative):
Invasive Dreissenid mussels (Quagga and Zebra Mussels) have been observed to significantly alter lake ecology through the displacement of native species and alteration of ecosystems and habitats. Invasive mussels can disrupt recreational and commercial fisheries, undermining docks, dams, and all other structures in the water, and they can impede navigation and cause public health risks to water users on beaches. The introduction and establishment of invasive mussels causes millions in municipal water supplies infrastructure damage and costs thousands in operation and maintenance costs to water purveyance systems.
Invasive mussels can be unknowingly transported from one lake to another by boaters, as their adult form likes to attach to small nooks and crevices, while their juvenile form can survive in any little amount of standing water (think bilge areas). Recently, Clear Lake was voted the nation's best Bass Fishing Lake, and has been acknowledged within the top 5 Best Bass Fishing Lakes across the country routinely over the last ten years. Record breaking fish have been caught in Clear Lake, making the visitation pressure from outside county and state lines higher than ever before. Lake County Water Vessel Inspection Ordinance 2936 protects all Lake County water bodies from infestation by Dreissenid mussels, and it's important to provide the County and the Board of Supervisors with a review and update of this program specifically how it functions and how it's funded, and what the plans are for this program going into the future.
Angela De Palma-Dow, Water Resources Invasive Species Program Coordinator, will give a presentation on the Lake County Quagga Musse...
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