Water Resources Director Scott De Leon made the pitch to the board Tuesday, along with Jim Steele, a retired Fish and Game biologist now living in Clearlake Oaks who has volunteered his time to assist with the county's invasive mussels prevention program.
De Leon explained that Fish and Game Code 2300, which includes rules pertaining to aquatic invasive species, is up for reauthorization next January.
“Right now would be an excellent time to request some modifications to that law that we feel would be helpful to Lake County,” he said, adding that such changes would benefit the state overall as it battles invasive species like the quagga mussel.
“We have taken the position of not relying on Fish and Game to help with this,” said De Leon, a decision he said he's arrived at based on watching other parts of the state cope with invasives.
De Leon proposed changes to the rules including requiring a “dirty boat sticker.” Once assigned such a sticker, the only way a boat could be designated “clean” and free of aquatic hitchhikers is for it to go through a decontamination and inspection process.
“It's going to make it a little easier for us to try to catch those,” he said.
Other proposals included expanded citation authority. De Leon said the current law allows the Department of Fish and Game director to designate other state agencies as having citation power, but he was seeking it for local law enforcement, including the sheriff.
Such citations would yield administrative fines and wouldn't burden the local court system, De Leon said.
In addition, De Leon proposed the idea of giving boat designers incentives to build “vector free” boats through use of design and materials that would prevent the mussels from infesting boats.
Supervisor Rob Brown said he supported most of De Leon's overall proposal, but he had concerns about the expanded citation authority. With an administrative fine, he suggested it was a matter of being guilty until proven innocent.
“Somebody should have the ability to at least plead their case in court,” he said.
Steele said they're also looking at quarantine requirements of such citations. Brown said they could quarantine the boats and give those cited a chance to defend themselves in court.
Regarding boat design, Steele said they want to encourage the kind of research and experimentation into mussel prevention that no one is doing, not even at the university level.
De Leon said they're also pushing to have a “boat dip” required to help fully disinfect boats. He said his department wants to budget funds to pay a university researcher to explore ways to best kill veligers, the tiny larval quagga mussels.
Supervisor Jeff Smith said a boat dip originally had been his proposal, as he believed it was the only way to ensure a boat was clean.
“Well, you all had vision,” said De Leon, who added that he didn't know why that proposal wasn't used.
Supervisor Anthony Farrington said it involved funding and liability concerns.
Steele said the idea has come up before, but the research on what to put in the dip tank hasn't been done. “It can be done it just doesn't have the science behind it.”
During public comment, Upper Lake resident Betsy Cawn said there was nothing wrong with what De Leon and Steele were asking for from the board, but she suggested that the county needed to be more aggressive in monitoring vulnerable access points to the lake.
“It's not on the agenda, that's the problem,” said Cawn. “What's on the agenda is this stuff.”
Steele said Clear Lake is vulnerable because it's a “headwaters destination point.”
All of Southern California was infected from one water body, Lake Mead, Steele said, suggesting that if the mussels get into Northern California headwaters, they'll spread to other areas.
Supervisor Denise Rushing said one possible approach to preventing a damaging infestation of Clear Lake would be requiring visitors who want to boat on Clear Lake to rent a vessel.
The board unanimously voted to support De Leon's proposal to send letters to Assemblyman Wes Chesbro and state Sen. Noreen Evans regarding the Fish and Game Code changes.
The supervisors also approved sending letters to state representatives requesting funding support for mailing out information about invasive species along with state boat registrations.
The third action the board took at De Leon's request was to approve the first reading of a proposed ordinance amending the county's water vessel inspection program.
De Leon requested the amendment, which would allow law enforcement to intervene before a boat that's believed to be infested or high risk is put into the water, rather than waiting for the vessel to launch.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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