SRP Takes Aim at Quagga Mussels

Reservoirs along the Salt and Verde rivers in Central Arizona have so far managed to avoid the invasive quagga mussel that has been detected along the lower Colorado River and in Lake Pleasant, and Salt River Project hopes to keep it that way.

SRP officials are urging Valley residents who plan to take their boats out to the reservoirs on the Salt and Verde rivers or up to Lake Powell over the Labor Day holiday weekend to support the statewide “Don’t Move a Mussel” campaign by taking special precautions that will help keep the mussels from spreading.

Because mussels attach to hard surfaces such as concrete and pipes, they can affect SRP canals, aqueducts, water intakes, dams and power plants that rely on water for cooling, resulting in significantly increased maintenance costs for those facilities.  The mussel can also cause damage to watercraft and affect lake ecosystems and fisheries.

SRP has not found adult quagga mussels in its water-delivery system, said Paul Cherrington, manager of Water Engineering & Transmission, and will continue its aggressive monitoring program at Roosevelt, Horse Mesa, Mormon Flat and Stewart Mountain dams on the Salt River, Bartlett Dam on the Verde River, C.C. Cragin Dam on East Clear Creek and the Colorado River’s Lake Powell, which supplies water to the SRP-operated Navajo Generating Station near Page, as well as SRP’s 1,300 miles of canals and laterals in the Valley.

Cherrington said SRP is concerned about the discovery of quagga mussels at multiple sites at Lake Pleasant, which is mostly filled by Colorado River water delivered by the Central Arizona Project and has the highest recreational boating use of the Central Arizona reservoirs.  Some of the water SRP delivers to Valley municipalities and shareholders originates at Lake Havasu on the Colorado River and from Lake Pleasant, which is delivered into SRP’s canal system at the SRP/CAP Interconnect east of Mesa. The mussels were also discovered last fall in a segment of the CAP Canal in Scottsdale, just northwest of the SRP/CAP Interconnect.

Quagga mussels, which have caused millions of dollars in damage in the Great Lakes region, were first discovered at Lake Mead on the Colorado River in January 2007.  Since then they have been confirmed in Lakes Mohave, Havasu and Pleasant and have shown rapid population growth, becoming a serious maintenance concern for facility operators.

In addition to its monitoring program, SRP is partnering with the Arizona Game & Fish Department and the U.S. Forest Service, Tonto National Forest, to promote the “Don’t Move a Mussel” outreach program in which state natural resource officials are requesting that boaters and other recreationists take simple steps to help prevent quagga mussels and other aquatic hitchhikers from spreading to other lakes.

SRP and state and federal resource agencies are asking all boaters and anglers throughout the state to help fight the continuing spread of the quagga mussels and other invaders by routinely taking the following precautionary steps each time they visit a waterway anywhere in the state:

• Clean the hull of the boat and trailer; remove all plant and animal material.
• Drain the water from the boat, livewell and the lower unit.
• Dry the boat, fishing gear, equipment and trailer between launches.

Day boat users are urged to wait five days before launching their boats at another location. This is especially critical for boaters using Lake Pleasant or any waters along the lower Colorado River and who are also planning to enjoy the Salt or Verde reservoirs or Lake Powell.  This five-day waiting period will aid in killing hidden hitchhikers such as the microscopic quagga larvae. Also, Arizona Game & Fish suggests washing the hull of boats with high-pressure water, either at the lake — if washers are available — or after leaving the waterway.

More information on how to help prevent the spread of this aquatic invader is available online at www.protectyourwaters.net/ or www.100thmeridian.org/.

SRP is the largest raw water supplier in the greater Phoenix metropolitan area, normally delivering more than 1 million acre-feet annually.  SRP is also the Valley’s largest provider of electricity, serving more than 935,000 customers.