Supervisor Anthony Botelho met with officials from the U.S.
Bureau of Reclamation on July 31 to discuss things the board could
do to help speed up the eradication of invasive zebra mussels,
first discovered in early 2008, at the San Justo Reservoir.
Supervisor Anthony Botelho met with officials from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation on July 31 to discuss things the board could do to help speed up the eradication of invasive zebra mussels, first discovered in early 2008, at the San Justo Reservoir.
The bureau of reclamation, in partnership with San Benito County Water District, has spent nearly three years trying to rid the reservoir of the mussels, but to no avail.
Options on how to eradicate the reservoir are still being considered, including a potassium chloride, or potash, mixture that would force the mussels to open up. An option won’t be chosen until the process will remove 100 percent of the mussels.
The bureau shut down the reservoir and will not open it back up to the public until all the zebra mussels are gone. The reservoir was once a popular recreation spot for San Benito County that included fishing and swimming.
“From our (the board of supervisors’) perspective we haven’t seen a lot of progress,” Botelho said.
The board had taken a backseat on the issue but will intensify its efforts because of the reservoir’s importance to the community, Botelho said. The board expressed its interest in being part of the team that comes up with the solution.
“We wanted to be part of the team – especially if we could lobby to extract these mussels and get this reservoir open to the public,” he said.
Botelho tentatively scheduled a presentation by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation for a September meeting. He hopes the bureau will explain its future strategy.
Despite no active plan being set, the short meeting was encouraging, Botelho said.
“Sometimes a small county like San Benito County is left out because we don’t have a lot of voters, but this is a high priority for the bureau,” Botelho said.
But he doesn’t expect a conclusion soon.
“It is a very complex problem to resolve, but we are being proactive,” he said.
