BOISE, Idaho — Treatment to kill the invasive quagga mussel was officially completed on Friday, Oct. 13, and officials will start post-treatment surveys.
While the operation was completed, Lloyd Knight, the deputy director for the ISDA, said It would take a few years for the entire stretch of the Snake River that was contaminated with the invasive mussel to reopen completely. Currently, the Idaho State Department of Agriculture and Idaho Fish and Game(IDFG) are looking at how effective the treatment was.
"We do have crews there this week that are just starting post-treatments and treatment surveys for mussels and veligers," Knight said. "As well as continuing with the water sampling to identify where our copper levels are in the river as we finish treatment."
Knight said that observations done last week during the treatment show that the treatment is going according to plan.
"Certainly, it's added short-term impact on plant life and algae, and we expected that in the river. We expected it will bounce back," Knight said. "Certainly, aquatic life has been impacted. It didn't kill every fish in the river, but certainly it did have mortality."
Knight said doing the treatment was a tough decision, but the alternative was worse.
"Spending millions of dollars a year to pretreat just to avoid impacts from known infested waters and it severely adds to the cost of hydropower generation, irrigation, all those things," Knight said. "So, for us, those are the impacts we're trying to avoid."
The big question is, did this treatment work on the mussels?
"These initial surveys that we do in the next week or two will give us an initial indication, but it's kind of a long wait game at this point, not a quick answer," Knight said.
According to Knight, it could take a few years to get an answer.
A portion of the Snake River from Ken Curtis Bridge at Highway 46 to Auger Falls will open on Thursday, Oct. 19, for hunting and fishing with certain restrictions like implementing decontamination stations. But the Snake River may take years to reopen fully.
"At some point after, when we get through all of our surveys in the next several years, we'll eventually look to a full opening of that area without restrictions," Knight said.
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