So When Quagga's Hit The Delta ?

[mac (Doyle McEwen)]

Guy, contrary to what you seem to feel, I honestly believe most of the various users of the Delta do care to some degree or another..We hear a lot of people saying that nothing is being done, and that is not entirely true..People are becoming aware and many do really care..The really sad part is for the most part we are extremely limited on what we can do..I do think there are more and more of us getting on the bandwagon for actively lobbying for improved conditions of the Delta..It may seem to be a lost cause to many, but not to all of us..

As far as the mussel/clam infestations and the various methods and inspections now in use to try and curtail their spread, the current situation is nothing more than a mish-mash of ideas and various degrees of enforcement that may or may not make much of a difference..I think most people are more concerned with the lack of continuity of the various programs, than they are with if they are accomplishing anything at all..

mac

[jimmy87]

so what do you propuse to do about the delta? I know things need to be taken care of or we will loose our fish. but guess what.
fishing and recreation is at the bottom of the list. (not for me or you but for water management)

I support these people
http://www.water4fish.org/
what else can we do? I am concerned about knee jerk reactions, and miss use of the mussell situation to restrict boating.

[Robert F]

[I am by no means a expert or scientist , only a concerned fisherman who has watched our Delta being decimated over the years by the self serving interest of Aggi-business and the water exporters who are delivering northern California water to the South at subsidized rates to subsidized farmers. We pay more per Acre foot for irrigation water on our farms in Brentwood than the ones who get the subsidized water from the Federal and State water projects in Tracy. And we are only 5 miles or less from the source of our intake for our irrigation water.

Are you talking about the same Delta that I go to fish? The one that was built by piling up trash to concentrate the wetland flats in to the main river channels and irrigation sloughs? After the trash piles made these sloughs then they piled trash on the banks and left it to rust and contaminate the water? Now they are building houses on the "re-claimed" land. This all after dumping a bunch of chemicals in to the land to optimize the farming yields of the former wetlands. The Delta that was built by the WHOLE STATE'S tax money as a STATE water project with a side benefit as a recreational use area. Is this the pristine Delta you are referring to? Don't get me wrong. I would like to see it exist for my future generations enjoyment as well a my current use. I guess I just see the "pristine" arguement as a bit tarnished. I see it as a resource that doesn't have a zip code so get over the "south" thing. As far as the mussel, there seems to be a less than perfect educational process. I doubt there is any recreational group as knowledgable on the subject as the Bass fishermen. I don't think it was a hard lesson to grasp. Education resources need to be alloted to the other water using factions. I especially see the water ballasted wakeboarders as a huge threat. If they get in the Delta I expect we will just deal with it. No way it will be the end of a pristine resource. That my friend was accomplished years ago. The new houses going in on the farmlands is just the nail in the coffin for your "pristine"resource. I bet they all will have nice lawns and a lot of toilets.

[Greg_Cornish]

I sent my notes on my brother in laws conversation to the guy working in the Whitefishing industry in Michigan. Here is his reply.

Greg,
Our program has worked with water treatment and power plants along the Great Lakes. Zebra mussels have indeed affected these operations. They must treat their intake systems when zebra mussel veligers are present or risk that their intake lines will get clogged. So this has been a major problem.

As for the Great Lakes and inland waters a big impact that zebra mussels have had is the destruction of native clams. They attach to our native clams and prevent their feeding and thus they die. This impact has been seen all the way down the Mississippi River drainage.
Clear water is not a positive. As I indicated earlier they filter phytoplankton which has negative impacts on the food chain. The water looks clear but the food chain gets disrupted. This has had impacts on lake whitefish in Lakes Huron and Michigan.

You did mention purple loosestrife. This is an an invasive plant and efforts to control it in our region have been underway for year. A beetle that only feeds on purple loosestrife has been released in many areas to help keep the population of purple loosestrife in check, but the beetle will not completely eliminate it.

Hope this information is of use.

Ron

[Dewayne]

it is all just BS.