FARMINGTON – New Mexico has so far managed to keep invasive water clams out. But that means vigilant inspections and decontamination of boats.
Reservoirs in the Four Corners area are considered high risk due to their proximity to Lake Powell, where these clams attach themselves to boats that are later brought to places like Navajo Lake.
Preventing them from entering New Mexico will save millions of dollars in the long run, said James Dominguez, coordinator for the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish Aquatic Invasive Species coordinator for the San Juan Water Commission during a March 4 meeting.
Once the mussels have established themselves in a body of water, the damage can be severe and extensive. Dominguez said it could affect anything from outdoor recreation to domestic water supplies.
“They’re not very big, but they cause a lot of problems in dense groups,” he said.
Not a “silver bullet” to get rid of clams
Fishing line can get caught on the clams and cut at the end, causing anglers to lose bait. People walking along the shore can have their feet cut off the shells. And they can block pipes that are needed to move water to homes and businesses.
“These are pretty expensive to manage, and to this day we don’t have a silver bullet to get rid of them,” said Dominguez.
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The zebra and quagga clams originated in the Black and Caspian Seas and were brought to the United States by boat. The clams first established themselves in the Great Lakes region and spread from there. In 2007 they reached Lake Mead, the first place in the western United States where the mussels were found.
Now New Mexico and Colorado are among the few states without zebra or quagga clams.
“I think we were probably lucky,” said Dominguez.
But New Mexico’s happiness may not last forever. Many neighboring states have lakes that are infested with zebra and quagga clams. He said Texas finds four or five more bodies of water infested by the clams every year.
Inspection and decontamination of boats
Boats that have been used on a lake with mussels can bring them to New Mexico without knowing it. The immature mussels are microscopic and the fully grown mussels are the size of a little fingernail.
New Mexico inspected more than 42,000 boats in 2019. Dominguez said 13 boats that were inspected had mussels last year. He said the boat owners were surprised when the tiny clams were discovered on their boats.
There are currently inspection stations on both Lake Farmington and Navajo Lake, and Dominguez said he would like to see an inspection station on Morgan Lake as well.
He said the inspection station at Pine Ramp on Navajo Lake inspects between 150 and 250 boats each day, and of the 209 boats decontaminated nationwide in 2019, 148 of them were decontaminated at Navajo Lake.
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During decontamination, the boat is sprayed with hot water. Dominguez said decontamination did not mean clams were found on the boat. Instead, it means that the inspectors assume it is a higher risk. For example, a boat that has been to Lake Powell and has water could bring microscopic clams into Navajo Lake.
Dominguez said 88 of the boats decontaminated at Navajo Lake in 2019 had come to San Juan County from Lake Powell.
“They reproduce and just reproduce”
If the clams reached Lake Farmington, Navajo Lake, or Morgan Lake, Dominguez said, within five years everything in the reservoirs would likely be covered in a thick shell of clam.
“They have no natural enemies, they have no mechanisms to isolate each other so they don’t overproduce,” he said. “They reproduce and just reproduce to the point where they just pile up and die.”
The dead mussels can then lead to malodorous water.
Hannah Grover reports on the Daily Times government. She can be reached at 505-564-4652 or by email at [email protected].
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