Nov 7, 2007 12:06 pm US/Central
Equipment Encrusted With Zebra Mussels Stopped
ST. PAUL (AP) ―
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In addition to spotting between 5,000 and 10,000 mussels, officials at the station determined the trailer was too small for the load it was hauling and held it until a larger trailer could arrive, the DNR said.
AP
A North Dakota company was pledging to reform after the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources cited it for transporting water pumps encrusted with thousands of invasive zebra mussels from Vermont to Minnesota last month.
"Zebra mussels can live out of the water for a long time and it doesn't take many to start a large-scale infestation," Lt. John Hunt, a DNR conservation officer, said in a news release.
The company, SolarBee Inc., said in a statement posted on its Web site that it is "committed more than ever to seek out and adopt the most stringent set of protocols we can find and are taking steps to absolutely ensure this situation is not repeated."
The company said the pumps were being hauled from Vermont to its main facility in Dickinson, N.D., for decontamination. It said they had been completely out of the water in Vermont for 14 days before being loaded for transport. The company said that was more than long enough to render the mussels harmless.
On Oct. 27, a semitrailer hauling the pumps pulled into the St. Croix Weigh Station on Interstate Highway 94 in West Lakeland Township, just across the river from Hudson, Wis.
In addition to spotting between 5,000 and 10,000 mussels, officials at the station determined the trailer was too small for the load it was hauling and held it until a larger trailer could arrive, the DNR said.
The driver was charged with transporting zebra mussels, according to the DNR. The equipment was cleaned with a high-pressure hose and returned to the company. The mussels were disposed of properly.
"There's no way to say what amount of our natural resources we protected and saved by pulling that trailer off the road," Hunt said.
Lynn Schlueter, the aquatic nuisance species coordinator for the North Dakota Game and Fish Department, said if zebra mussels had gotten in the Missouri River in large numbers "they would have found a place to over-winter."
"In the spring they would do what they do, and that's reproduce," he said. "We're talking in the thousands. That's the scary part."
Tiny zebra mussel larvae float through the water then latch on to hard surfaces to grow. Besides clogging pipes, they can litter beaches and shallow areas with sharp shells, smother native mussels and disrupt aquatic ecosystems.
Hunt said he worried about how many other bodies of water could have been contaminated by the cross-county trip.
"Think of how many bridges they potentially drove across where small items can fall into the water below," Hunt said. "The vibration from the road or bridge surface could have caused zebra mussels to fall off into who-knows-how-many bodies of water across the country."
Originally, zebra mussels probably came from Europe in the ballast water of ships. They were discovered in Lake St. Clair between Lakes Erie and Huron in 1988. They have spread rapidly in the Great Lakes and elsewhere, including Duluth Harbor, the Upper Mississippi River and the Lower St. Croix River.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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