MEETING NOTES: Kern water districts weigh mussel treatment costs
Meetings and agenda packets:
Shafter-Wasco Irrigation District July 8 agenda CLICK HERE
Arvin-Edison Water Storage District July 14 agenda CLICK HERE
Shafter-Wasco opts for strong offense
The Shafter-Wasco Irrigation District board voted at its July 8 meeting to spend more to hit invasive golden mussels hard in October, rather than saving costs by reducing treatments.
General Manager Kris Lawrence had recommended pausing treatments after low-doses of a copper chemical applied by GreenLeaf Ag proved successful in June.
Lawrence showed a video from a grower taken July 4 of a large mass of dead detached mussels. That treatment cost $139,200.
Lawrence recommended stopping treatment over summer, then restarting it in October at an expected cost of $127,373.
He said that consulting firm Dudek had explained that contributing factors such as lower calcium levels in the water and additional product placed in the system by growers would make it difficult for the veligers, mussel offspring, to survive.
The other option was to continue the low-dose treatments through summer, culminating in a larger kill treatment in October. Cost for this option is $509,491.
The board sided with the second, more aggressive option.
“I’d rather have a grower come to me and complain about spending five hundred thousand than come to me and say his lines are plugged up,” board member, David Bloemhof III, stated.
The board approved continuing treatment and will assess the situation month by month. Additionally district staff will order veliger monitoring kits to help with month-by-month assessment.
Funds for treatment costs are expected to come from district reserves and would not lead to rate increases at this time.
Arvin-Edison board hits pause over insurance caps
At it’s July 14 meeting, the Arvin-Edison Water Storage District tabled a decision to spend $1.3 million on a second phase of mussel treatment while it explores other vendors that may offer a higher insurance liability cap.
SePRO Corporation, which did Arvin-Edison’s first treatment in April for $2.5 million, wants to set a liability cap of $10 million.
Board members balked at that saying if water treatments proved detrimental, crop losses could be in the hundreds of millions.
Director Catalino Martinez asked if others vendors might offer different levels of insurance caps prompting directors to ask what other districts had found on this issue.
The board opted to have staff investigate the current status of golden mussel growth in the district as well as SePRO competitors.
The district will hold a special board meeting on August 11 to make a decision on the next phase of treatment.
