TWIN FALLS, Idaho — The Snake River turns green near Twin Falls as copper treatment to kill invasive quagga mussels begins. Building on their experience last year, the Idaho State Department of Agriculture has made some modifications to how to get more thorough coverage of the chelated copper product intended to kill off adult and larval quagga.
- On Wednesday, ISDA began treating the Shoshone falls area, running chelated copper through the Idaho Power powerhouse, as well as over the falls.
- The treatment will last about ten days, with a follow-up treatment for deeper pools and hard-to-reach sections of the Snake expected in November.
- ISDA says the concentrations of quagga mussel veligers, or larvae, are much fewer than last year, which is why they are increasing thoroughness this year
(Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)
Treatment to kill invasive mussels on the Snake River is underway.
The water turning bright green as crews release chelated copper product into several locations.
"We're running products through the powerhouse at Shoshone Falls, as well as some over the falls and the boats are doing some treatment of the deep pool beneath the falls," ISDA's Deputy Director Lloyd Knight said.
"It is one that does go after a lot of aquatic life as we feed it through the system, where we do it at a level that takes care of any adults that are in there, as well as more than what is needed to take care of villagers and we plan that so obviously whatever adult colonies we may have in the system, we take care of those," Knight said.
After last year's initial treatment, Knight says the agency made some improvements with this year's approach
"This is a very unique section of the river geologically, you have, obviously, the features of a couple of different sets of falls," Knight said. "You also have just the geology of holes and pools within the river system. It's not just one simple straight piece of water."
After adding the chelated copper product crews monitor its dilution.
To be effective, adult mussels have to be exposed to a certain level for a certain amount of time, so that's a big part of what they are doing for the next ten days
"We saw significant reduction in the number of vessels from last year to this year, so pleased with how effective the treatment was, it's not surprising. We have to do a second treatment, but, obviously, next year we have to continue that monitoring to make sure we got them for good."
"This river is a life blood of the state for a lot of people, for a lot of reasons," Knight said. "We use it for agriculture hydropower recreation with sustained aquatic systems. We want to make sure we get this addressed so that doesn't impact all of those things," Knight said. "And we appreciate everybody's support and understanding as we work through that."
