LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lake County Board of Supervisors is taking the lead in seeking a statewide state of emergency to combat the spread of invasive mussels.
Targeting dreissenid mussels – specifically the quagga and the zebra, which hit lakes and rivers in the eastern United States before appearing in Southern California water bodies within the last four years – the resolution the board passed unanimously on Tuesday will urge the state's leaders to take the action.
The supervisors' resolution seeks a number of actions.
Those actions include asking that the California Department of Fish and Game's enforcement powers to tag and quarantine boats be extended to local governments; that all boats leaving infested lakes be quarantined for a minimum 30-day period; that vehicle license fees be raised for boats, with the additional revenue allocated to a mussel prevention program; implementation of a statewide program that identifies boats as disease vectors and quarantines those that can't be decontaminated; the development and implementation of a public education campaign; continuation and expansion of the state's border inspections; and collaboration amongst jurisdictions.
The board also appointed Supervisor Anthony Farrington and Supervisor Denise Rushing to present the document to state officials, organizations and other local governments around the state.
Outreach to other local governments is important because, as Farrington told his colleagues, there's strength in numbers.
With so much of Lake County's economy based on tourism and the vitality of its natural resources, particularly local lakes, the threat of the mussels' potential arrival has been a matter of concern for the last several years, ultimately leading to the county's invasive mussel prevention program.
Late last month the Clear Lake Advisory Committee had asked the board to consider declaring a local county emergency.
The board declined to do that last week, instead choosing to look at a larger and, in the board's opinion, more effective route by taking a statewide approach.
Supervisor Rob Brown said Tuesday that it had occurred to him after last week's meeting that a tougher stance might be in order – specifically, asking the state to quarantine all infested lakes.
“They're the ones that have it, they should be quarantined,” he said, with Farrington agreeing.
Brown added, “We're less likely to become infected if the lakes that are infected are quarantined.”
Lower Lake resident Victoria Brandon, who is a member of the California Invasive Species Advisory Committee, urged the board to advocate for the continuation of border inspections, which stopped an estimated 500,000 vehicles between January 2007 and December 2010, finding mussels on close to 800 boats.
“If they eliminate that I think we're absolutely sunk,” said Brandon, who also offered to try to get the statewide emergency resolution on the advisory committee's Sept. 21 agenda.
Melissa Fulton, chair of the Clear Lake Advisory Committee, said the group met for three hours last Friday to come up with recommendations for the ordinance.
She emphasized that federal dollars are available to help address the mussels, and that money needs to be brought to Gov. Jerry's Brown's attention as soon as possible.
Fulton said that with access to federal funding, other counties can build prevention programs modeled on Lake County's, which – although she acknowledged it isn't perfect – is constantly being changed and updated.
The idea that there is no money “needs to be shouted down,” she said.
In addition, Fulton suggested that Gov. Brown should immediately convene a meeting that includes all boards of supervisors across the state, all water agencies and statewide organizations that could work to address the threat and identify other prevention methods.
“We're all talking the same talk, it's time we took the same action,” Fulton said.
Paula Britton, environmental director of the Habematolel Pomo of Upper Lake, asked the supervisors to send the resolution and a letter to a list of federal agencies, a copy of which she presented to the board.
Britton, who noted that she's looking at what funding is available to tribes for mussel prevention, said, “For the most part we're going to have to depend upon ourselves, at least for now.”
All five board members will sign the ordinance, a suggestion by Farrington that Comstock said was excellent.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
How to resolve AdBlock issue? 
