Damaged underwater curtain designed to contain zebra mussels in Clear Lake to be removed

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This article was published 09/09/2024 (735 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

An underwater curtain to contain invasive zebra mussels in Riding Mountain National Park will be removed, Parks Canada announced less than five weeks after it was put in place.

A private contractor finished installing the nearly two-kilometre-long waterproof membrane, secured with weights on the bottom of Clear Lake, on Aug. 6. The bright yellow structure was dislodged by wind and waves some two days later.

“The curtain was damaged and is no longer an effective means of containment and cannot be repaired or replaced this fall. The private contractor that provided and installed the curtain will be responsible for its removal,” Parks Canada said in a release Monday.

The federal government said it will continue “intensive monitoring” for zebra mussels until the southwestern Manitoba lake freezes over. “This monitoring will continue until ice forms and will help determine whether plans for a potential eradication or control treatment using potash are feasible.”

Potash is a molluscicide approved for use by Health Canada.

Temporary watercraft-management measures to prevent the potential expansion of zebra mussels in Clear Lake remain in effect and the main boat cove remains closed to public access. A clump of 48 live zebra mussels were found in the area in November — the first discovery of its kind in the national park.

Kyle Bazylo, a board member with the Clear Lake Cabin Owners’ Association, called Parks Canada’s decision “disappointing,” after cottagers and the local community continually rung the alarm on the invasive species, with little feedback from the province.

“We’ve had a whole year here of what we assume is active zebra mussels, so you just wasted a year and we allowed them to spread who knows how much,” he said Monday. “At this point, one year later, I just can’t imagine being able to contain it.”

Zebra mussels are active in the summer and a single female can produce up to one million eggs in a breeding season.

The curtain was installed in hopes of containing the mussels to one section of Clear Lake, after Parks Canada reported a live adult mussel and a partial shell were found July 17.

Bazylo said the association sent a letter last week to Parks Canada president and CEO Ron Hallman, calling out the federal agency for a “perceived lack of urgency.”

Bazylo noted there are businesses in and around the Clear Lake town site of Wasagaming entirely dependent on being out on the water that have had to write off a year of revenue and the community did all it could to stop the mussels from spreading.

“We stayed out of the area, we didn’t go swimming there. We didn’t use the beach, couldn’t use the boats. We tried to follow their guidelines so, hopefully, there was an attempt to eradicate the mussels and that’s what we were hoping for. And clearly, it failed,” he said.

“I don’t know if it was a lack of research or a lack of consultation with the installation of the curtain, but it’s extremely disappointing, I think, for all of us.”

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca