Zebra Mussels Cost $70 Million between 1989 and 1995

Zebra Mussels Cost $70 Million between 1989 and 1995

From September, 1996 (Update #28)

During the last six years, problems resulting from zebra mussel infestations have cost power plants and industrial facilities nearly $70 million, according to a new study by New York Sea Grant and the National Zebra Mussel Information Clearinghouse. "The study shows that while the mussel's physical impacts are well known, their economic impacts are only now becoming understood," said Charles O'Neill, clearinghouse director and study author. The New York Sea Grant study found lower expenditures than were reported from a survey of Great Lakes water users conducted by Ohio Sea Grant researcher Leroy Hushak. The Ohio study estimated $120 million were spent in five years. Hushak's study was summarized in Zebra Mussel Update #27. Power generating plants, public and private drinking water treatment plants, industrial facilities, navigation lock and dam structures, and other facilities were polled in the New York study. A detailed survey was mailed in three random samples to a total of 1,400 facility owners and operators in 35 U.S. states and three Canadian provinces. A 57 percent survey return rate was obtained. Information solicited in the survey included: facility type; source of water; the amount of water the facility used; types of zebra mussel-related impacts, and the zebra mussel monitoring and control activities that were implemented. Two-thirds of the survey results have been summarized to date. These results will be updated by the end of the year. Three hundred thirty-nine facilities reported zebra mussel-related expenses totaling over $69 million. The minimum expenditure was $400; the maximum was just under $6 million. The mean expenditure per facility was approximately $205,570. As expected, total annual expenditures increased between 1989 and 1995, rising from $234,140 to $17.8 million as zebra mussels spread and affected more facilities. The largest per-facility expenditure was reported at nuclear power plants, with a mean expenditure of $786,670. Other major categories included: industrial facilities, which reported a mean expenditure of $167,030 per facility; fossil fuel electric generating facilities, which reported a mean expenditure of $145,620; and drinking water treatment facilities, which reported a mean expenditure of $214,360.

ID: 199609-1.

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.