Invasive golden mussels run rampant in San Joaquin County, spark plea for federal assistance
Tony Faso has been in the boating business for 23 years. In that time, he's never been able to see the fish swimming near the shores of the San Joaquin Delta, until now.
"The clarity of the water is wild," Faso, owner of the Delta Marine Yacht Center in Stockton, explained. "It's sad to say, but we could never even see that deep."
That clear water is a clear warning sign of the invasion happening below the surface as hundreds of thousands of golden mussels filter the water while wreaking havoc on critical infrastructure.
"I don't want to say it's a foregone conclusion that we can't stop it, but we have to find a way to slow it down," Faso said.
The golden mussel is tiny but mighty, multiplying fast and nearly impossible to get rid of.
Thick colonies are already coating boats, piers and pipelines.
As the owner of the Delta Marine Yacht Center, Faso has a front-row view of the invasion as he hauls boats daily coming from the web of waterways around the region.
"We get to really kind of view a whole host of environments that these mussels are showing up in," he continued. "It's a really good kind of concentrated way to get a lot of data quickly and it's just our normal course of business."
He's also part of a county committee trying to find ways to combat the invasive mollusk.
"That's our big push. We need data, we need information and we need people to do little things like we're doing," Faso said.
His job is to test an ultrasonic transducer that sends pulses along a surface to deter mussels from attaching.
"We're trying to specifically prove it out on agricultural pipes as the Delta is so agriculturally sensitive," he explained. "We have a system in place but we need time to prove it."
He says the results have been positive but the need to stop the spread of these mussels is urgent.
"If we have a problem here, and we do, it's likely showing up in all other regions hundreds of miles away," Faso continued. "These boats that are traveling from body of water to body of water can unwittingly be transmitting or conveying those mussels to an otherwise unaffected area."
By working with local to federal partners, they hope it will bring in additional resources so waterways across California can be set free.
"We're looking to find a solution and that seems unlikely," he said. "In the meantime, what we're trying to do is get education out there."
The county Board of Supervisors is asking for funding, technical assistance, mitigation strategies and infrastructure protection resources through local, regional, state and federal partners through an emergency declaration, which was declared at the end of April.
They plan to review the status of the emergency every 60 days.
