Mussel spread threatens Hoover Dam pipes

Keith Rogers, Las Vegas Review-Journal
February 18, 2008

LAS VEGAS — Invasive quagga mussels are adapting well to life in the desert, especially in Lake Havasu, where scientists have determined their reproduction rate is three times faster than when the pesky mollusks infested the Great Lakes years ago.

Leonard Willett, the Bureau of Reclamation’s quagga mussel coordinator for the lower Colorado River dams, said the effort to deal with quaggas, which were discovered last year first in Lake Mead and later downstream of Hoover Dam, still is in the monitoring phase, the first part of what he called the “reactive approach.”

“Reactive approach means you’re going to live with the mussels. You’re going to control them, but you’re going to live with them,” he said in a recent presentation to the Lake Mead Water Quality Forum.

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