It would only take one boat infected with zebra mussels to destroy our beautiful lakes and create a problem costing the Okanagan an estimated $43 million a year just to manage.
And that’s not counting the impact on our tourist industry of beaches covered in the razor-sharp shells of this unwanted invasive species.
Zebra and quagga mussels create toxic algae blooms, they destroy beaches and boat motors, contaminate and clog water intake and outflow pipes and devastate fisheries.
Once a lake is infested, they cannot be removed.
The Okanagan Basin Water Board (OBWB) has been trying to raise awareness of this threat with billboards urging people “Don’t Move a Mussel,” and by handing out information pamphlets at boat launches.
Unfortunately, senior levels of government have been moving at their usual glacial pace in addressing this threat.
They are not treating the threat of an invasion by zebra and quagga mussels with the urgency it deserves.
Already these mussels, which are not native to North America, have devastated lakes and rivers in Eastern Canada and the U.S.
More recently, they have been spreading through lakes in the U.S. Southwest and have now been found in Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba.
The main way these mussels are spread is when recreational boats are used in a contaminated lake and then transferred to an uncontaminated lake without being properly cleaned.
With the mussels now reaching lakes in Western Canada and advancing northward from the Southwest U.S., it is only a matter of time until someone tries to bring a contaminated boat into the Okanagan.
States such as Idaho have excellent inspection programs where boats entering on major highways are inspected.
In some states, boats must be inspected before they can be launched.
The B.C. government has recently enacted provincial legislation against importing mussels, but it has not provided the necessary funding for inspection stations at entry points along the Alberta border.
Nor, as yet, have the three uninfected Western provinces pooled resources to protect against contaminated boats moving west from Manitoba.
The federal government has been even less responsive.
The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) won’t enforce B.C.’s provincial legislation on boats coming in from the U.S. And the necessary federal legislation is still moving slowly through the bureaucracy.
The federal government needs to approve changes to regulations under the Fisheries Act.
Rather than addressing the threat in a piecemeal basis, they are taking the time to look at the entire broad issue of regulating all aquatic invasive species.
The problem is that while they take the time to seek a comprehensive set of regulations, boats are coming into the province without adequate inspection by border officials.
A more prudent approach would be to empower CBSA officials to inspect boats for invasive species in time for this summer’s boating season, while, if necessary, bringing in more comprehensive regulations at a later time.
If lakes and rivers in the Okanagan Valley become infected by these mussels, it is local people and visitors who will bear the brunt of the costs and inconvenience.
We need to push senior governments, who are more detached, to act now before it is too late.
