Unbelievable population explosion’ of the species as officials
prepare to treat reservoir with potash
With invasive zebra mussels
”
flourishing
”
in the closed-to-the-public San Justo Reservoir, officials are
awaiting federal approval to begin an eradication program that, if
not started by this fall, would keep the popular fishing and
boating spot closed for another year.
Unbelievable population explosion’ of the species as officials prepare to treat reservoir with potash
With invasive zebra mussels “flourishing” in the closed-to-the-public San Justo Reservoir, officials are awaiting federal approval to begin an eradication program that, if not started by this fall, would keep the popular fishing and boating spot closed for another year.
The United States Bureau of Reclamation, the San Benito County Water District and the California Department of Fish and Game propose to get ride of the fingernail-sized freshwater mussel by treating the reservoir with potash and chlorine after its yearly water deliveries draw down the basin, located off Union Road.
Water officials around the state are monitoring the San Justo infestation, the only one of its kind in the state, because allowing zebra mussels into the state’s waterways could be devastating.
“We’re terribly concerned about their spread,” said Dana Michaels, spokeswoman for the state Department of Fish and Game. “They can be disastrous if they get throughout the water system and they produce toxins that kill local, native organisms. They reproduce massively and fast so if they get into water pipe systems for drinking water or irrigation, they can clog them up quickly.”
Another type of mussel, the quagga, has been found in nearly 20 other state waterways. Both types of musselsarrived in the United States from Europe in the 1980s and spread to numerous waterways in the East. Quagga mussels were discovered in Western states in 2007. The zebra mussels were found in San Justo in January 2008.
A zebra mussel infestation in the Great Lakes region in the mid-1990s caused an estimated $5 billion of economic impact to water utilities and the power industry.
“The best thing we can do is stop it right now,” Michaels said. “Because San Justo has piping to and from other waterways and drinking systems, there’s a pretty serious risk of the little buggers getting somewhere else.”
Potash, or potassium chloride, is a type of salt, said San Benito County Water District Manager Jeff Cattaneo.
“It’s the same thing if you went to the store and bought salt substitute,” he said.
The application of potash to zebra mussels disrupts the creatures’ ability to filter feed and takes from a week to two weeks to be effective, Cattaneo said, adding that the amount left in the water after the treatment “would be equivalent to the amount of potassium you’d get in a banana.”
The potash causes the mussels to open up, and the chlorine would kill them, Michaels said.
The water district is working to get the environmental clearance from state and federal officials to proceed with the eradication plan, which has proven successful in a quarry back east that had a zebra mussel infestation in its water.
“There are red-legged frogs and tiger salamanders in the area, so any activity we engage in has to be evaluated for the risk to any of those species,” Cattaneo said. “We’re hoping that we’re going to get the permit from the state Environmental Protection Agency for the application of the potash to control mussels in the next 30 to 60 days. Then we’ll move forward with the Bureau of Reclamation and the fish and wildlife service to get a permit for them to do the application.”
If the approval is not gained by September, “we probably won’t be able to do the treatment this year because we won’t be able to do the water draw-down process to get the reservoir at a point where we can do the application of potash in the winter when water demand is the lowest,” Cattaneo said.
The treatment, which would likely involve having the potash/chlorine mixture pumped into the reservoir from atop a barge towed around it, would likely be done in December or January. The potash would be allowed to sit in the lowered reservoir for up to three weeks while officials monitor its effectiveness and make adjustments as necessary.
The Union Road entrance to the reservoir, normally open dawn to dusk, is locked. It has signs reading “San Justo Reservoir closed til further notice” and “Entry prohibited. Stop! Area closed. Reservoir is closed for all activities.”
The facility’s phone rings unanswered.
“It has created a lot of concern for the folks that use the reservoir, but those critters getting out of the reservoir would be devastating to the state,” Cattaneo said. “There’s an unbelievable population explosion right now [in San Justo]. The conditions for them are perfect; the water temperature is right and the oxygen content is just right.”
While the mussels are flourishing, Cattaneo said “there is no indication that they are spreading” beyond the reservoir.
“That’s the reason for limiting public access – to minimize them being transported” by attaching themselves to boats that might visit other waterways, he said.
Michaels, the fish and game spokeswoman, said her department is inspecting water vehicles at waterways throughout the state, hoping to stop the spread of quagga and zebra mussels.
“We’re also working with the Department of Food and Agriculture to check trailered boats at state checkpoints,” she said.
Of the more than 225,000 watercraft that have been inspected from January 2007 through the end of May 2009, approximately 20,000 had to be cleaned and nearly 400 were quarantined because of the presence of adult Quagga or zebra mussels.
“Their larvae float in the water, so they can latch onto something else,” Michaels said. “They’re kind of like a virus; they spread easily.”
Treating the water with potash “is like a lot of bananas and salt,” she said. “It’s not something that’s going to stay in the water a long time or cause problems for people or the fish stock.”
Pete Lucero of the United States Bureau of Reclamation said the agency is evaluating the mussel eradication plan “as it relates to effects on the environment, humans and the economy. The process can take some time.”
Asked if he believed there would be any roadblocks that would derail the treatment plan, Lucero said, “We don’t believe there are any, but we still have to go through this process to make that judgment.
“Any infestation of mussels in a California waterway is a problem,” he added. “There’s a country-wide effort to locate, identify, eradicate and prevent the spread of these mussels. They have an uncanny ability to reproduce quickly, which can affect water delivery systems and reservoirs.”
Local water officials are confident that the potash/chlorine treatment plan will rid the reservoir of mussels.
“We have no reason to believe that we won’t be successful,” Cattaneo said. “If we don’t get rid of them, we’ll come up with a different management strategy.”
Completely draining the reservoir is not an option, he said, because there would still be a “dead pool” of water – an amount that cannot be drained out, “and you’d still be stuck with having to apply potash regardless of how much you’d drain the water down.”
Having the reservoir closed for a year and a half is not a total surprise to Cattaneo, who said, “I don’t think anybody realized how complex the problem was and how many environmental laws have to be satisfied before we go forward with the project.”The surrounding neighborhood has an eclectic mix of architecture styles that include everything from Pioneer style, Gothic revival, Craftsman bungalow and Mediterranean revival, among others.
“The site has a very deep history in town,” Moore said. “It was the first site for Col. Hollister’s homestead and then Fremont School.”
In deciding what elements to include in the courthouse site, Diefenbach said, they also looked at what structures have been historically include in other designs. Some of those items include columns, canopies, monuments and platforms.
Some courthouses have “a sense of grandeur purely from the scale,” Diefenbach said, as he showed photos of other courthouses. “Maybe we get that from something else.”
One of the things that the architects and project advisory group agreed on is the idea of transparency. Much of the exterior of the building will be glass, which will help the architects get LEED certification, but will also reflect the desire of court officials to be available to the public. Diefenbach said they are considering a feature wall that would be visible night and day from outside the building, and would go with the craftsmanship and texture of surrounding buildings.
“We felt very strongly that we want people to come in and be able to see, and they took that and really embodied it,” Sanders said.
The design will bring with it new security features. The building will have 30 to 40 security cameras, and detainees will be brought into the back of the structure and into a secure holding area. They will use a separate elevator from the general public, as well.
The first floor of the courthouse will include the self-help center, mediation offices and the court clerk’s office. The second floor will house three courtrooms and a juror assembly room that can be converted to a fourth courtroom in the future if needed. Judges’ chambers of office space will also be on the second floor.
“It is very impressive to watch the process, how it is unfolding,” Loe said. “A LEED building – the first in Hollister that will be silver – says so much about the community and where it is going.”
One thing the architects are looking into that may not make it into the design is the idea of a green roof, with plants growing on top of it. The feature lowers the heat inside of the building during the summer, and would also offer a view for people looking down from Park Hill.
“It used to be a scary idea putting all that dirt on a roof,” Moore said.
The main concern is maintenance and costs for the roof. Construction on the project is expected to begin in February 2011, with completion expected in fall 2012.
“We are hoping to make progress, and shorten up that timeline,” said Jun Quan, the project manager for the state Office of Court Construction and Management. “We are advertising for a construction manager.”
