Columbia Falls asked to help stop aquatic invaders

The threat of aquatic invasive species to Montana’s lakes and streams was succinctly demonstrated to the Columbia Falls City Council on April 21 with the help of a sample from Lake Mead, Nev. — a piece of PVC pipe covered with 3-4 inches of zebra mussels.

A man in Nevada leaves pieces of pipe in the reservoir for about six months and then mounts them in a clear plastic case and sells them, Flathead Basin Commission executive director Caryn Miske explained.

Zebra mussels have become the poster child for a much broader problem with aquatic invasive species because of how fast they can grow and coat everything in a waterbody — docks, propellers, pipes, junk — entire beaches.

They have spread from the Great Lakes, where they may have entered North America in the bilges of cargo ships, to nearly every state in the U.S.

“Can we do anything about them?” Miske asked. “Well, Lake Tahoe is surrounded by contaminated waterbodies, but the community there got tough and got serious, and the lake is still free of zebra mussels.”

Miske acknowledged that preventing the spread of zebra mussels and their tiny larvae is very difficult, but even if their spread is inevitable, communities can save millions of dollars each year their lakes and streams remain uninfected.

“The state of Idaho estimates the savings at $92 million per year,” Miske said. “Lake Tahoe estimates their savings alone at $22 million.”

With boat inspection stations up and running at Ronan, Clearwater Junction, Roosville and on U.S. 2 in the Canyon, the Flathead Basin now has a reasonable ring of protection.

The Canyon station has been moved this year from Coram to a better site at West Glacier, Miske said. It’s funded with $15,000 from the city of Whitefish, $14,000 from the Bureau of Reclamation at the Hungry Horse Dam, $10,000 from the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, $4,000 from the Flathead Basin Commission, $2,500 from the Whitefish Water and Sewer District and $2,500 from Trout Unlimited.

Miske asked the city of Columbia Falls to chip in to the cause. While funding for boat inspection stations is available for this year, there is a deficit for the program that monitors about 50 waterbodies in the basin. She later told the Hungry Horse News she hoped the city of Columbia Falls could come up with $5,000 to $15,000 for this effort.

Miske also updated the council about the Flathead Regional Wastewater Management Group, which the Flathead County commissioners no longer want to fund or facilitate.

“The Flathead Basin Commission has agreed to facilitate the group until such time as the county wants to step back in,” Miske later said.

The group is concerned about the impacts of older, failing septic systems and other nonpoint pollution sources in the Flathead Basin, Miske explained. The federal government expects point sources, such municipal wastewater treatment systems, to pay large amounts of money to make small beneficial improvements to the nutrient loading that could impact Flathead Lake.

Columbia Falls spent nearly $8 million since 2000 upgrading its wastewater treatment plant, and Polson recently approved spending $17 million on its plant. The city of Whitefish could also be looking at a $17 million expenditure.

But nonpoint sources — which include septics, agricultural lands and forests — account for much more of the harmful nutrient loading in the basin than the population centers of Kalispell, Whitefish, Columbia Falls and Bigfork.

Miske emphasized she is not calling for more regulation of septic systems in the county.

“It’s premature to say what’s needed until the group has had a chance to formulate a recommendation,” she said. “But the county has no regulations dealing with failing septic systems, and a plan needs to be developed in order to get funding to deal with this problem.”