PAGE — Glen Canyon National Recreation Area received $110,000 in additional federal funds to expand its efforts to prevent quagga mussels from invading Lake Powell, but it’s not enough, so Glen Canyon’s top official is going back for more.

Superintendent Stan Austin traveled to the Intermountain Regional Office in Denver this week to, among other things, request that regional officials with the U.S. Department of the Interior provide Glen Canyon with more funding to keep away an invasive species that has already laid claim to numerous other Arizona lakes, Lake Mead being one of them.

Steve Metz, Glen Canyon’s acting chief of resource management, said the money recently received would be used to hire a full-time project coordinator to direct efforts at preventing mussel invasion. The prevention coordinator would also be responsible for working with National Park Service partners on how to efficiently curb the threat.

The funds would also provide six employees to man the launch ramps and help to check boats to make sure adult mussels have not latched on, mostly downlake where traffic is higher. Currently, the launch ramps are semi-manned with Utah Division of Wildlife Resources officials and employees with park concessionaires. Metz said hiring these employees would help to fill the gaps when boats come into the park after-hours, when the fee booths are not manned.

“We’ll have more flexibility in the system now, providing additional backup for the great job the concessionaires have done so far with the decon,” he said.

The funds will also allow NPS to conduct more frequent monitoring of the water through water sample collection to make sure quagga mussels have not slipped through. Glen Canyon officials had a scare last July when water samples collected around Wahweap Marina found mussel veligers, which can’t be seen with the naked eye. NPS claims there have been no more samples found that indicate quagga mussels are here.

Money is also earmarked for education materials to get the word out about the threat of quagga mussels.

With many boats traveling from lakes where mussels have been discovered, the prevention system in place at Glen Canyon has been strained as officials have been identifying high-risk boats at fee booths and sending them on to decontamination stations. Metz said the Independence Day weekend saw 50 boats that came here from mussel-infested lakes move on to the decontamination stations for sterilization.

“That’s a lot. That’s more than we had the entire year just two years,” he said. “We used to average 30 a year, and the system was good for that when it was just the east coast that had them. As soon as Lake Mead and other lakes had them, our (decontamination) numbers have just jumped. We’re into the hundreds and hundreds per year now.”

Metz did not have a figure on the amount of money Glen Canyon officials would need to adequately man the park in defense against mussels, but he said the current amount does not solve the problem. He pointed out that, if mussel infestation occurs, Glen Canyon officials could face the same financial straits as Lake Mead, which is spending millions annually on Hoover Dam specifically against the mussels.

The current system in place is dependent on the honor system, with NPS hoping people will be honest about where they’ve been. However, the day could come when mandatory boat inspections are required when boaters come into the park. Metz said that, like other issues, will require more money.

“The problem is that we have 100,000 boats arrive here and so, to build a system of that magnitude that could do full inspections and decons of every boat that arrives at the gate every day would require resources that are currently beyond our ability to get,” he said. “In the long term, I think that would be our goal. From the feedback that we’re getting from our partners at the coordination meetings, that is where they would like us to move, as well.”

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