Control Expenditures Clarified

From January, 1997 (Update #29)

The last two issues of Zebra Mussel Update reported on differing expenditures related to zebra mussel control. Ohio Sea Grant researcher Leroy Hushak offered the following clarification. Hushak said, "There are two critical differences between the Ohio and New York Sea Grant studies. First, the Ohio study was limited to Great Lakes basin water users, while the New York included inland water users. Second, the Ohio study covered 1989-94 while the New York study, which was conducted later, included 1995." Moreover, Hushak added that the New York study reported nearly $70 million in zebra mussel control expenditures which was substantially lower than the $120 million reported in the Ohio study. "These numbers are not comparable," he said. "The $120 million estimate from the Ohio study was based on reported expenditures of $60 million and a 50 percent response rate. The New York figure included only $70 million in reported expenditures - and, if their 57 percent response rate were used, then total expenditures from the New York study would have been about $123 million.".

ID: 199701-4.

The Zebra Mussel Update was a 4- to 8-page quarterly national newsletter published by the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute from May 1990 through May 1997. The ZMU documented the spread of the zebra mussel -- an exotic nuisance mussel -- through North America's freshwater environments, especially the Great Lakes, and on efforts to control it.