Zebra Mussels Finally Here!
I’m just finishing up a project for Manitoba Hydro developing zebra mussel control strategies at several of their generating stations, and during my research I stumbled across an article in The Manitoba Professional Engineer that gave me a chuckle. It was a write-up on a presentation I’d given at one of their luncheons on the “impending threat” of zebra mussels – in 1994! I’ve added it below. I had no idea that it had been written, but was reminded about how prepared I became more than 25 years ago to deal with impacts to Manitoba. All the research, national conferences, and pilot studies in Manitoba in the early 1990s, and then nothing to use the knowledge on. While they arrived in Ontario in the late 1980s it took zebra mussels until 2013 to arrive in Manitoba, found in several harbours in Lake Winnipeg. They will create challenges for all facilities with water intakes and conditions are pretty good for zebra mussels throughout Manitoba.
