Monday, February 23, 2009

Great Lakes, Great Peril: The Invasion Spreads

Quagga mussels are clogging Hoover Dam, colonizing lakes, rivers
By Dan Egan of the Journal Sentinel

Lake Mead, Nev. - It took some of America's best engineers, thousands of laborers and two years of around-the-clock concrete pouring to build the 726-foot-high Hoover Dam back in the 1930s. It took less time than that for the tiny, brainless quagga mussel to bring operators of this modern wonder of the world to their knees.

While federal lawmakers continue to squabble over how to stop overseas ships from dumping unwanted organisms into the world's largest freshwater system, the Great Lakes' most vexing invasive-species problem has gone national. [Full Story]

Source: JSOnline

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