New Sightings Elsewhere

From September, 1994 (update #22)

BRAIDWOOD, Ill. - Zebra mussels have been found in the cooling pond for the Braidwood power plant, according to Commonwealth Edison Power Company environmental scientist Rich Monzingo. This power plant draws water from the Kankakee River, which, to date, has not contained zebra mussels. Samples collected and analyzed by Commonwealth Edison personnel have not detected any zebra mussels in river intake water, according to Monzingo. He attributed the mussels' presence in the cooling pond to overland transport by recreational boaters. Monzingo said that most of the 16 Commonwealth Edison power plants in Illinois are infested with zebra mussels. The exceptions include the Byron Station, which draws water from the Rock River, and the Sangchris plant, which is located near Springfield, Illinois. "There have been unconfirmed reports of mussels at Sangchris," Monzingo said. Surveys conducted this summer should help confirm these reports, he added. All Commonwealth Edison plants are using thermal treatment to control mussels, according to Monzingo. Along with the facilities mentioned above, the utility company has facilities on Lake Michigan, the Illinois River and the Mississippi River.

BEAVER ISLAND, Mich. - Zebra mussels were found in July at two locations in the harbor of St. James, a village located at the north end of this large offshore island in northern Lake Michigan, according to diving consultant Daniel Hendrix.

JACKSON, Mich. - Adult zebra mussels were found for the first time in six new Michigan lakes this summer, according to Paul Marangelo, a Sea Grant-funded University of Michigan graduate student sampling inland Michigan lakes. The lakes are Devils Lake (Lenawee County), Vinyard and Clark lakes (Jackson County), Silver Lake (Oakland County), and Portage and Whitmore lakes, (Washtenaw County). Veligers were also found for the first time in three additional inland lakes - Kent, Sylvan and Orchard lakes (Oakland County). Following an anonymous tip, Marangelo made the Vinyard Lake sighting in mid-June. Numerous mussels were found attached to strands of Eurasian water milfoil. Orchard Lake receives water from Cass Lake, where "Dreissena" veligers were found for the first time during the summer of 1993. This summer Marangelo also re-sampled five lakes in the northern part of Michigan's lower peninsula, known as the "Tip of the Mitt" region. Only a single veliger was found this July in Burt Lake, one of four lakes in which veligers were found during the summer of 1993. No adult mussels have ever been found in these lakes.

PICKAWAY COUNTY, Ohio - Zebra mussels were sighted in Circleville Twin Quarries on May 21, according to Ohio Sea Grant Extension Specialist Fred Snyder. Circleville Twin Quarries is a popular scuba diving location in the south-central part of the state. Zebra mussels have also been found in Hargus Lake, located in Pickaway County.

MOUNT MORRIS, N.Y. - In the fall of 1991, "an incredibly enormous number of zebra mussel veligers" were found in Conesus Lake by SUNY-Brockport graduate students, according to information provided by the Livingston County Department of Public Health. Densities as great as 30,000 per cubic meter were found during a three-week period that summer, later verified by New York Sea Grant's Dave MacNeill. However, no settled zebra mussels were spotted in the lake until this summer. In early July a single mussel was found attached to a Unionid clam, and another was found in early September, according to Ralph Van Houten, county environmental health director. Van Houten said that following the veliger report several years ago, small water utility operators and hundreds of homeowners with potable water intakes were warned that zebra mussels posed an immediate threat to lake water intake lines. Despite the urgent warnings, Van Houten said, "We still don't see an impact." The situation is similar to that of several inland Michigan and Wisconsin lakes where veligers have been collected but adult mussels have not yet been found.

NORTHBROOK, Ill. - Zebra mussels have been found in the irrigation ponds of two golf courses on Chicago's north side, according to Ken Gardiner of the Northbrook Water Utility. This water utility provides chlorine-treated water from "Dreissena"-infested Lake Michigan directly to irrigation ponds at the Green Acres Country Club and the Lake Shore Country Club. According to Gardiner, fairly large numbers of adult zebra mussels have been found in one irrigation pond at Green Acres; smaller mussels were found at the Lake Shore Country Club. The water utility has been chlorinating raw water entering the plant's Lake Michigan intake for nearly two years. The chlorination seemed to be effective - no adult mussels have been observed at the Northbrook water treatment plant, located 3.5 miles from the water intake. However, Gardiner noted that some veligers must have survived the intake chlorination in order to colonize the golf course ponds, which are located as far as three-and-a-half miles from the water intake. Golf course workers said the mussels haven't caused irrigation system problems, Gardiner said.

ID: 199409-3.

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.