SUN Staff Report
4/2/09
The United States Army Corps of Engineers plans to start inspecting boats later this year to prevent the introduction of invasive zebra mussels into Abiquiú Lake, Operations Manager David Dutton said.
“There have been infestations in Colorado, Arizona and Oklahoma,” Supervising Park Ranger Eric Garner said. “They threaten the acequias. They clog pipes, damage infrastructure and just destroy aquatic ecosystems.”
The Rio Grande is the only major watershed in the Southwest that has not been invaded by the tiny, striped mollusks, Dutton said. But if recreational boats from Colorado or Arizona were to introduce the mussels to Abiquiú Lake, they would quickly spread throughout the lake, local creeks, the Rio Chama and the Rio Grande, Garner said.
“We can’t ban boats on the lake,” Garner said. “A lot of industry and state money depends on boating and fishing. We’d be under fire immediately if we even tried to ban boats.”
So instead, Dutton hopes to hire additional park rangers to inspect boats for mussels on their hulls and conduct a public awareness campaign.
Last August, an erroneous lab result suggested that mussels from Abiquiú Lake had zebra mussel genes — an indication that the invasive species was present in the lake. But a re-analysis showed that the Abiquiú Lake samples had not contained zebra mussel genes, Dutton said.
“One possibility is cross-contamination at the lab,” Garner said, meaning the lab had previously handled and contaminated their equipment with zebra mussel tissue.
Dutton did not know what lab did the analysis. A public records request for the lab results has been submitted to the Corps.
Dutton is a member of a regional task force to prevent the spread of zebra mussels into the upper Rio Grande, he said.
Native to Russia, the species have spread to freshwater lakes and rivers throughout the world.