Boat ban aims to contain mussel

There’s an uproar over the infamous freshwater quagga mussel at Klondike Lake, one of the few patches of water in the sprawling Owens Valley open to motorized recreation.

In an effort to keep the prolific, destructive bivalve from surging into the Los Angeles aqueduct system, the city’s Department of Water and Power banned the use of personal watercraft (such as Jet Skis) and recreational boats on the 160-acre lake -- and installed a fence around it.

For 20 years, “it was anything goes on Klondike Lake -- no gates, no law enforcement, nothing,� said Russ Markman, owner of Bishop Adventure Rentals and head of the Save Klondike Committee, a group dedicated to keeping the lake open to motorized boating. “It’s the only place like it in this region for eastern Sierra families. It isn’t right to lock us out.�

Markman has collected 2,500 signatures on a petition urging the Inyo County Board of Supervisors and DWP to fund a concessionaire to inspect boats at the lake, which is just east of U.S. Highway 395 and about two miles north of Big Pine.

In a compromise, the DWP said it would allow motorized boats to launch between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. between May 23 and June 13. The boats must first undergo an on-site $10 quagga inspection, said DWP Assistant Aqueduct Manager Clarence Martin.

“If it gets up here, it will devastate the infrastructure and fisheries,� Martin said. “It will end recreational fishing in the eastern Sierra altogether.�

Experts suspect that the quagga, which has wreaked havoc from the Great Lakes to Lake Mead, is spreading via water systems and on recreational boats moved by trailer from one marina to another. Forming large masses that clog water pumps, it has already infested the 242-mile California Aqueduct and reservoirs in San Diego and Riverside counties.

Currently, there are no indications that the thumbnail-sized mussel has infiltrated the Owens Valley aqueduct system, which supplies Los Angeles with 25% of its water. DWP officials hope to keep it at bay.

Smokeless state parks and beaches?

California’s Senate has passed a bill to ban smoking at state parks and beaches. It would establish a fine up to $100 for infractions.

SB4 now moves to the Assembly. A similar bill failed to become law in 2006.

According to the California Department of Forestry, smoking results in an average of 100 forest fires and destroys 3,400 acres in the state every year. Cigarettes caused the 1999 Oakland Hills fire, which destroyed 3,354 homes and 456 apartment buildings.

The Ocean Conservancy estimates that smoking-related items account for as much as 38% of debris on U.S. beaches.More than 100 local governments in California have imposed smoking bans in at parks and beaches.

--

[email protected]

[email protected]

Read more on The Times’ environmental blog: latimes.com/greenspace.