Invasive mussels have shown up closer to B.C. waterways than ever before, and the Okanagan Basin Water Board (OBWB) is calling on the provincial government to ban U.S. boats from crossing the border.
“The (zebra or quagga) mussels, which we’ve been very concerned about for more than a decade have now been found in the Snake River in Idaho,” said James Littley, who manages the OBWB’s program to remove invasive milfoil in the Okanagan.
The Snake River, where the invasive species was found, is about 1,000 kilometres upstream from the Columbia.
“It’s very close to B.C., an 11-hour drive from where they are, and we’re concerned they’re going to spread naturally down the Columbia. So we’re asking the provincial government to put a moratorium on out-of-province watercraft until they can determine the extent of the infestation and improve their inspection system,” Littley told Global News on Friday.
It’s a tall ask, but Littley said he’s confident it will be taken seriously.
“Our board directors have met recently with the (Minister of Environment) … and they know how serious this is and what a changing dynamic it is now that the musels are so close to us.”
The discovery in Idaho wasn’t just of a single mussel.
“They found both the baby mussels …. which are microscopic larvae, and also at least one adult mussel, which indicates that they’ve likely been there for a little while,” he said.
“The State of Idaho had a really good inspection system in place and were obviously monitoring the water, but their rapid response was to dump 116,000 litres of (copper chelate) pesticide … into the water, which has basically killed everything for (a 26-km) stretch of the river. That was considered better than letting the mussels get in and float down into the Columbia.”
The mussels are extremely damaging to waterways and, in turn, water-adjacent economies. A report issued earlier this year indicated that a zebra or quagga mussel infestation would annually cost the province $64 to $129 million.
Despite the seemingly drastic measures taken in Idaho, there’s still cause to believe that the invasive species could be on the move.
“What we’re concerned about is they may have been there long enough that they’ve already surpassed this treatment area,” Littley said.
“The confluence of the Snake River and the Columbia is in Washington state not in Idaho. Right now, the province has declared the state of Idaho to be a high-risk area, but they haven’t declared Washington or Oregon to be high risk, both of which the Columbia flows through after the state enters.”
For more than 10 years, the water board has been working on calls to action from the province to improve its inspection station program.
This new measure would completely end any risk of boats coming from the south across the Canadian border.