An example of a zebra mussels - an invasive shellfish that can clog water pumps and pipes and could potentially wreck havoc on California's water and power system.
Morgan Hill
Mandatory boat inspections to prevent invasive mussel species from entering local drinking water sources will continue as long as recreational vessels are allowed on Santa Clara County's reservoirs.
The Santa Clara Valley Water District board of directors voted 5-2 Tuesday to spend up to $175,000 to continue the inspection program at least until July 2009. The inspections are required for all boats that enter Anderson Lake, Coyote, Calero and Stevens Creek reservoirs, in an effort to ensure that destructive zebra and quagga mussels are not introduced into local water facilities.
Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation officials hope to provide an equal amount of funding in a cost-share arrangement that started with a pilot inspection program in May. On May 23, the district board voted to provide half of the $560,000 to fund the inspections until Dec. 31, 2008. The county provided the other half.
Board members and district staff said that unless they ban boating on reservoirs altogether, preventive inspections are here to stay because the cost of eliminating mussels would be far higher.
"This is something we're going to have to live with a very long time," said board chairwoman Rosemary Kamei.
Some board members expressed concern over the cost of the inspection program, which is currently estimated at $700,000 per year. However, according to Bruce Cabral, water quality unit manager for SCVWD, the Metropolitan Water District in southern California, in whose reservoirs quagga mussels found a home last year, has spent nearly $8 million in eradication efforts.
"Prevention is the most effective method at delaying control and eradication costs," Cabral said.
But director Joe Judge, who voted no along with director Patrick Kwok, said that means boating on reservoirs should be completely prohibited. Other directors cautiously supported the funding at Tuesday's meeting, noting that due to the slipping economy they might prefer a boat ban when the issue comes back to them in about six months.
The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors is expected to vote on the county's half of the funding at its meeting Tuesday, according to Parks and Recreation Department spokeswoman Tamara Clark-Shear. And in order to bring its share of the expected six-month cost down to $175,000, the department's staff has proposed an "off-season" at two of the reservoirs. If that measure is approved, Coyote and Stevens Creek reservoirs would be closed to boats from Jan. 1 to April 14, Clark-Shear said.
In addition, the water district directors unanimously voted Tuesday to provide $90,000 toward a similar inspection program on Lake Del Valle in Alameda County. That reservoir is a significant source of imported water for Santa Clara County.
About 25,000 boats launched from the four Santa Clara County reservoirs in 2007, according to Clark-Shear, and attendance has dropped this year.
Water district staff explained Tuesday that less money is needed during the winter months, when local boat use drops off substantially.
A Santa Clara boating enthusiast said some of his customers were initially frustrated with the inspections because they weren't yet familiar with the regulations. But Austin Watts, manager of Cope and McPheters added now that most customers are aware of the program and understand it, they support it.
"We try to give them a heads up" if customers plan on using one of the four reservoirs, said Watts. He added that for many of the store's customers, Anderson and Calero are their "home lakes."
Cabral said the money approved Tuesday will continue to pay for contracted inspection services from Quaggainspections.com, a private boat inspection company.
Efforts to keep the mussels out of the water also include the ongoing monitoring for mussel life at the reservoirs.
"We haven't found any adult mussels, but we've rejected boats with holes in them, and vehicles with water on them" that could harbor baby mussels, said Cabral, who noted that boats must be "clean and dry" before entering county reservoirs.
When a boat passes an inspection, a band or tag is applied to both the boat and the vehicle on which it is transported. If the boat leaves the vehicle and the band is broken, a new one is reapplied at no charge if the vessel has entered local water. But if the boat has been in non-local water the owner must pay for another inspection. The inspection fee is $7 per boat.
The mussels, which were introduced to California waters by recreational boating last year, can rapidly multiply and cause damage to intake systems.
Funding for the local program is partially recovered through revenue from inspections.
The pilot inspection program at Lake Del Valle which started in July was also funded by the Alameda County Water District, East Bay Regional Parks Dept., and Zone 7 Water Agency. The vote Tuesday by the SCVWD assumes the shared four-way funding for the $358,000 per year program will continue.
Michael Moore Michael Moore covers county and law enforcement issues for the Morgan Hill Times. Reach him at (408) 779-4106, ext. 202, or mmoore@morganhilltimes.com.
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