Colorado Parks and Wildlife has found invasive quagga mussel larvae in Green Mountain Reservoir in Summit County, prompting aggressive decontamination policies to prevent the growth and spread of the invasive species.
The presence of larvae can lead to an infestation that would threaten hydroelectric power generation, water quality and recreation.
Specialists with the Bureau of Reclamation found the larvae — known as veligers — through a microscopic examination and DNA testing earlier this month. A team of scuba scientists — part of a program with the Denver Aquarium — surveyed the reservoir last week and did not find any of the invasive mussels in the reservoir between Silverthorne and Kremmling.
All boats heading into Green Mountain Reservoir will get the same inspection for invasive mussels as every other body of water in the state but now, after the discovery of veligers, all boats leaving the reservoir will be inspected. Any boat leaving Green Mountain for another body of water will require decontamination. If after three years of biweekly tests Green Mountain Reservoir tests show no more veliger, the reservoir will be delisted.
“The inspection team is so disappointed because they train and are so vigilant,” Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokeswoman Lauren Truitt said. “It’s a tough pill to swallow knowing that one of our bodies of water could be in danger.”
No adult zebra or quagga mussels have ever been found in Colorado, thanks largely to the Colorado Parks and Wildlife inspection teams that have examined 373,293 boats this season and conducted 10,116 decontaminations to prevent the introduction of the mussels.
“This situation demonstrates the importance of following the law and going through the required inspection and decontamination process upon entering and exiting bodies of water,” Reid DeWalt, assistant director of wildlife and natural resources with Colorado Parks and Wildlife, said in a statement. “We could face the possibility of a very harmful infestation that could cause severe damage to the reservoir and its infrastructure.”
Green Mountain Reservoir, where water is stored to compensate the Western Slope for water drawn upstream and diverted to Front Range cities, is a critical component of the Colorado-Big Thompson Project. The hydroelectric power plant at the base of Green Mountain Dam, with six other plants in the C-BT system, can generate enough electricity to power about 68,000 homes annually.
Officials suspect a boat from an out-of-state body of water using an illegal boat ramp could be responsible for the introduction of mussel veligers at Green Mountain Reservoir. So far in the 2017 boating season, inspectors across Colorado have found 23 boats with confirmed zebra or quagga mussels. Last year inspectors found 22 boats with mussels.
Boaters are asked to clean, drain and dry their boats after each use. Colorado is one of the first states to deploy an early-detection monitoring program for invasive species.
Since 2008, Colorado Parks and Wildlife has enacted decontamination procedures at eight different bodies of water, most recently at Lake Pueblo State Park. After three years of negative tests, Colorado Parks and Wildlife delisted Lake Pueblo in January, marking the first body of water in the country delisted following contamination protocol, Truitt said.
