Franklin County may close down reservoirs to protect against invasive species

No more boating.

That’s what anyone looking to get on the waters in Franklin County might hear. The county is on the verge of closing its reservoirs for the season.

This is because the state has cut funding for all but 24 invasive species checkpoints across Idaho. Franklin County said this makes it too hard for them to keep damaging species out of the water.

The species they’re most concerned about is the quagga mussel. Quagga mussels attach themselves to boats and once they’re in the water, they’re impossible to stop.

“It’s not just the irrigators that are affected by this invasive species, it’s all of us,” said Lyla Dettmer, district manager for the Franklin Soil and Water Conservation District.

Quagga mussels are 1-inch mollusks that multiply quickly.

“They cling on and they’ll just cover anything that’s metal or plastic and they go inside of it, around it, and they just plug it off,” said Clair Bosen, president of the Twin Lakes Canal Co.

Mussels can attach to screens, rope, pipe, anything. They’re also extremely sharp.

Once in the water the only chance to get rid of them is to completely drain the water source and chemically kill the mussels. Not only would that be expensive, time-consuming and almost impossible to drain reservoirs that size, but it would devastate a farming community that relies on its water sources.

With recent quagga mussel outbreaks in Nevada and Utah lakes, such as Lake Powell, Franklin County becomes an important border patrol for the state.

“There’s a big concern that if they get through our check stations throughout the state, they could affect lakes from Bear Lake to Redfish Lake, all the way up through the state of Idaho,” said Scott Workman, Franklin County commissioner. “So it’s imperative, especially on our borders, that we check these boats and make sure they’re inspected and clean.”

While there aren’t any known cases of quagga mussels actually infesting Idaho waters yet, there have been boats come through Idaho that have been caught at checking stations with a live quagga mussel on them. If mussels aren’t caught at checking points, it doesn’t take much for them to spread.

“All you got to do is have one boat that gets on the lake and has a live quagga mussel and you’re going to have them,” said Bosen.

Even though the checking station located at the Franklin, Idaho-Utah border will remain state-funded and open, other stations in the county will not.

The cost to keep those stations open and running now falls to the county. It would cost about $40,000 per station to operate for the season. The bulk of that cost falls to the local irrigation companies who manage the lakes and reservoirs. The irrigation companies said they have no way to come up with that amount of money. They said the risk of infestation is high and so without funding, they have no other choice.

“Without funding, the irrigation companies can’t afford to do what you gotta do and so there’s only one option and that’s to close it to the public,” said Bosen.

While the county is still trying to come up with ideas on how to potentially raise the money, it’s running out of time. The stations are scheduled to open for the season Friday. Irrigation companies said as of right now, no funding means no reservoirs for the season.

Workman said he applauds the irrigation companies’ efforts to do what they need to for the safety of the water and the boaters, but closing the reservoirs will have a negative impact on the county.

Closing the reservoirs could cost the county between $2 million-$3 million from tourists and recreationists this season.

Workman said he went to Boise to meet with state legislators about getting funding to keep the stations open. He said though Sen. Mark Harris and Rep. Marc Gibbs were supportive, they got little support from the state Legislature as a whole.

“Sadly, you know, maybe it’ll take something like closing down the reservoirs for the season in order for the state fix something that needs to be fixed,” said Workman.

The irrigation companies will make a final decision on whether or not to keep the reservoirs open by Friday.