Work targets aquatic invaders

While funding sources for a bill revising aquatic invasive species management are sorted out in the Montana Legislature, other efforts are underway to control the spread of zebra mussels and other nonnative species in Montana waters.

The lack of monitoring at Duck Lake and other lakes on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation drew attention during the Flathead Basin Commission’s April 10 meeting. The lakes are popular with fishermen in the Flathead who might accidentally transport invasive species back to the Flathead, commission executive director Caryn Miske said.

Commission chairman Chas Cartwright noted that efforts by the state’s AIS program to set up a boat inspection station in Browning were aimed in part at addressing that problem. Inspection stations also help to educate locals about the AIS program.

Miske added that talks have started with officials in Alberta about getting boat inspection stations set up there.

Allison Begley, Montana’s AIS coordinator, said inspection stations will be operating this year at Troy, Thompson Falls, Noxon, Shelby, Conrad, Clearwater Junction, Eureka, Ronan and other locations. Many will not operate seven days a week, and some will only check trailered boats heading in a single direction.

Commission member Susan Brueggeman pointed out the need to set up dump stations around Flathead Lake for boat bilges. Aquatic invasive species can be transported inside the bilges or other holding tanks on recreational boats.

Brueggeman said she was looking into potential designs for the Dayton harbor and discovered that the Montana Legislature had directed the Montana Department of Environmental Quality in 1991 to establish guidelines for vessel pump-out facilities.

That work was never done, Brueggeman said. Nevertheless, state law is in place making it illegal for a person to dump “garbage, refuse, waste or sewage from any vessel into, upon or near the waters at a stream, river or lake” in Montana.

Meanwhile a bill to revise the state’s AIS program passed in the Montana House on March 27 by 88-10 and was transmitted to the Senate. House Bill 586, sponsored by Rep. Mike Cuffe, R-Eureka, is intended to reorganize the AIS roles of various state agencies as a streamlining measure while getting the Montana Department of Transportation also involved.

Part of MDT’s role would be in facilitating the location and design of boat inspection stations, Miske said, but also to use employees at weigh stations to conduct AIS inspections of commercial haulers. Fifty-seven boats transported by commercial haulers in Idaho were found to be carrying zebra mussels, she said.

HB586 would also expand the focus of inspections from boats and trailers to industrial equipment, including floating docks and pilings, dredge pipe, irrigation structures and buoys. Industrial barges brought to Whitefish Lake last year to clean up oil spilled from a 1989 train wreck were found to be carrying zebra mussels.

Finally, HB586 will clarify how the state can quarantine areas, Miske said. The Ag Department has the authority to enact a quarantine over invasive plants, but it’s never been clear if the Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department has authority to enact a quarantine for mussels.

Enforcement clarity is also needed, Miske said. HB586 would give peace officers the authority to stop and detain violators of AIS regulations. Miske noted that peace officers in Washington had been reluctant to enforce that state’s unclear AIS regulations. Once that matter was settled, “Washington state peace officers were on board,” she said.