I am coming to understand the situation more and more. There were no closures at infected lakes and the state or feds might have been able to do that and protect other water sources. Once a lake is infected it needs as much money as possible to combat the problem and they certainly do not want to close. The lakes that are closing now are doing so to protect those lakes and also to make a statement to the government that they need to get involved. They do not want to end up infested and trying to mitigate the situation alone. This is a political move to try to get state or fed help or both.

My guess would be it was a hot potato issue and no one wanted to address it for lack of money to deal with it. The other issue to consider is that if you recognize and act then you sort of own and become responsible for it, you have set a precedence, not to mention then people can point their finger at you for blame. I believe that is why no government orginazations wanted to touch this one.

Birds do transfer the mussel and there are numerous ways to deal with maintaining pipes when they are found. hot water, coatings, ultraviolet light, bleach, chlorine and salt water to name a few. and all the others that can be found at the website in my above post.

This is going to be a big thing for a long time. I only wish the state had the funds to deal with it. unfortunately it is all about cutbacks right now. We are going to need a non profit type entity set up that can take funds, hire staff and run with the ball. I believe it is in the works and we will be learning more shortly.

Peace
Rich