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Invasive Mussel Spreads to Miramar Reservoir

An invasive mussel has spread to another reservoir in San Diego County. KPBS reporter Alan Ray has more.

Invasive Mussel Spreads to Miramar Reservoir

An invasive mussel has spread to another reservoir in San Diego County. KPBS reporter Alan Ray has more.

San Diego county water managers say they've found what they call a "significant population" of quagga mussels in the Miramar Reservoir in Scripps Ranch.

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It's the fifth of the county's reservoirs to be infested with the tiny shellfish. Quaggas cannot be eradicated once they establish themselves in a body of water. As their numbers increase, they clog pipes and foul pumps...

The county will now increase inspections of watercraft that use the reservoir, since the mussels spread from water to water by attaching themselves to the hulls of boats.

The quagga is indigenous to a Ukranian river drainage. It first turned up in the U.S. in Lake Erie in 1989. By January of this year, it had been detected in Lake Mead, Lake Mohave Lake Havasu and in San Diego County.