Task Force Fighting the stateâ€™s Zebra Mussel Invasion

An international menace has made its way here and is now growing in Green Country. The tiny organisms are wreaking havoc for families and businesses all over the world. <br><br>The world's shippers

Thursday, February 10th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

An international menace has made its way here and is now growing in Green Country. The tiny organisms are wreaking havoc for families and businesses all over the world.

The world's shippers use inland waterways like the McClellan - Kerr navigational system to transport two billion tons of merchandise a year. Tulsa's Port of Catoosa is the first stop on the long journey to the gulf. â€œWhen you say Tulsa Port of Catoosa, they say, well, there's no ocean in Oklahoma,â€ said port shipper/receiver Roy Johnson. â€œBut we handle a lot of material from all over the world."

Unfortunately, that's not all the barges are transporting. Currently, an Oklahoma task force is monitoring an underwater mussel that is wreaking havoc on water supplies and power plants in other states. The mussels have already been spotted at the McClellan - Navigational Waterway. The real problem is trying to prevent the zebra mussels from reaching out to other Oklahoma lakes and streams. That's why the task force was formed.
â€œThey disrupt the water supply,â€ said Corps of Engineers spokesman Everett Laney. â€œThey will attach to hard surfaces and their accumulation is very thick. You're talking about a big operating cost, once you get those things in there."

It's happened in the Great Lakes area, where billions of dollars have been spent on clearing out zebra mussels that had accumulated to more than a foot thick in some areas.
The Corps of Engineers hauled 40 dump truckloads out of one Great Lakes bay alone.

This is what Laney and his task force is trying to avoid in Oklahoma. â€œWe've really been successful in what we see what our mission was, and that was to get the information out,â€ Laney said. â€œWe've been working pretty hard, ever since we found them. Weâ€™ve been notifying every community that could be impacted in the state."

The task force wants boaters to learn that the mussels and their eggs can be spread to other waterways when fishermen load up their boats into trailers and haul the boats to other lakes. â€œIf I want to take my boat someplace else, all I have to do is drive my trailer down to the ramp there and drive my boat up on it and take it wherever I want," said boat owner Paul McKenna. McKenna added that he has never heard of zebra mussels.

With thousands of boaters traveling hundreds of miles back and forth to Oklahomaâ€™s many different shorelines, conquering the zebra mussels may prove to be quite a task. The Zebra Mussel Task Force says that public education seems to be working. If you want to learn more, call the Grand Lake Association about their public seminar, which will be held later this month.