Steeling for Mussels

From September, 1996 (Update #28)

Several of the largest steel mills in North America are situated on the southern shore of Lake Michigan - prime zebra mussel waters. Recently, Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant contacted them to find out what problems they're having with zebra mussels and what methods they're using to control them. Bethlehem Steel in Portage, Ind., spends approximately $400,000 a year on chlorination and neutralization with sodium bisulfite, according to Ken Handley, a foreman with the company. The company has spent $2 million dollars on zebra mussel control since 1991, and "there are significant additional costs incurred with keeping people updated and on top of the situation," Bethlehem's Dean McDevitt said. At Inland Steel in East Chicago, Ind., "zebra mussels never caused great problems," according to Bob Johnston, an environmental health and safety staff engineer. Johnston said this was due to Inland's proactive treatment. For the first two years after discovering the mussels, the company used a molluscicide to kill the adults. Today they use continuous chlorination when lake temperatures are at or above 55 F. "There's a definite cost that we're incurring," Johnston said, "but we've settled into this continuous chlorination, and we'll probably always do it." Inland Steel spends less than $100,000 per year in direct costs on zebra mussel control, Johnston estimated. Pat Charlebois, Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant.

ID: 199609-9.

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.