County presents Clear Lake mussel preparedness and containment plan; urges local rainy‑day fund and permanent decontamination stations

Angela DePalma Dow, Lake County’s Water Resources Invasive Program coordinator, presented the Clear Lake Integrated Preparedness and Resilience Plan at the council meeting on March 7. The plan, funded in part by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, assembles prevention, response and containment steps the county and partners would use if quagga or zebra mussels were detected in Clear Lake.

DePalma Dow described the prevention program’s ramp monitors — about 14 part‑time staff who inspect incoming boats and equipment — as the essential backbone of current efforts. She emphasized the county has not detected invasive mussels in Northern California water bodies near Clear Lake but noted that quagga and zebra mussels are present in southern parts of the state and elsewhere in the West.

The plan’s recommendations include creating a local rainy‑day emergency fund to support immediate response (the state, she said, funds prevention but not responses), siting permanent decontamination stations (dip tanks or staffed containers) at strategic launch points, increasing signage and outreach, and expanding screening requirements to some nonmotorized vessels and short‑term rental properties. She warned that if mussels are found in the lake, state prevention grants (about $400,000 a year locally) would be suspended, reducing resources for monitoring and vendor‑based sticker programs.

DePalma Dow also described multiagency tabletop exercises and scenario drills used to refine the plan, the economic stakes tied to recreation and fisheries, and the next steps: consolidating deliverables on a single website, seeking city and tribal review, applying for additional federal grant funding in April, and asking the Board of Supervisors to adopt the plan in June or July so local agencies can lead response actions.

Council members and the supervisor who attended praised the ramp monitors and discussed potential sites for decon stations and funding sources such as tourism taxes and vendor fees. No formal action was taken; staff requested council input for the plan prior to supervisor adoption.