Zebra Mussels
- Thread starter cscott
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Potassium Chloride kills the mussels but don't know if you can conclude that salt water would also from this (I would guess so).
In Colorado, the state Park offices supposedly sent out some guidelines to all the state parks regarding water ballast boats (sailboats and power wake ski boats). Basically they are going to assume that there are a few gallons of water in the ballast tanks since most of the tanks are pretty much impossible to inspect and there are all sorts of manufactures having different configs.
The boat in general must be dry no matter what but if it has ballast and has only been used in lakes which don't have the mussels, the boat is allowed on the lake even with the assumption that several gallons of water could still be in the ballast (boat owner of course is always going to be honest about where they have been). If the boat has been on a lake which is known to have the larvae, the ballast tank must be washed with 140F degree water which will kill both the mussels and the larvae. I don't think the 140F water would damage anything on a Mac. Every state park is supposed to have the equipment and the process is also supposed to be free. The state parks also have a tagging system where when you leave a lake, you can get a "yellow tag" with the lake name somewhere on the tag which gets you back into the lake easily.
I guess Clorox works but has issues such as bleaching carpet when spilled in that nice 40K power boat. Clorox also is supposed to have some corrosion issues. Apparently (cant confirm this) the chlorination in ordinary tap water is enough to kill the mussel larvae over some period of time (how long??) so this is one fairly safe and easy thing to do.
In Colorado, the state Park offices supposedly sent out some guidelines to all the state parks regarding water ballast boats (sailboats and power wake ski boats). Basically they are going to assume that there are a few gallons of water in the ballast tanks since most of the tanks are pretty much impossible to inspect and there are all sorts of manufactures having different configs.
The boat in general must be dry no matter what but if it has ballast and has only been used in lakes which don't have the mussels, the boat is allowed on the lake even with the assumption that several gallons of water could still be in the ballast (boat owner of course is always going to be honest about where they have been). If the boat has been on a lake which is known to have the larvae, the ballast tank must be washed with 140F degree water which will kill both the mussels and the larvae. I don't think the 140F water would damage anything on a Mac. Every state park is supposed to have the equipment and the process is also supposed to be free. The state parks also have a tagging system where when you leave a lake, you can get a "yellow tag" with the lake name somewhere on the tag which gets you back into the lake easily.
I guess Clorox works but has issues such as bleaching carpet when spilled in that nice 40K power boat. Clorox also is supposed to have some corrosion issues. Apparently (cant confirm this) the chlorination in ordinary tap water is enough to kill the mussel larvae over some period of time (how long??) so this is one fairly safe and easy thing to do.
Do they intend to fill the whole ballast tank with 140 deg. water, 150 gallons in the case of a 26C? If so in order to assure that temp for even a few minutes it seems that it would have to be over 140 when they fill it,
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In the Salem, OR paper yesterday morning, they had an artical that said the Oregon Legislator just added surcharges to all boats- motor or nonmotor including rafts 10ft or over. Surcharge is $5.00 every two years for residental boats and $20.00 for out of state boats. Fees are to be used for control of Aquatic Invasive Species Preventin. This bill was not introduced by the Marine Board.
Chuck
Chuck
I just talked to (phone) someone at one of the Colorado State parks. I told them I had been to Lake Powell about three weeks ago with a water ballast sailboat (they are becoming more knowledgeable about water ballast) and they said the boat must be de-contaminated if it has been at a "suspect" lake. They said that if I have a 150 gallon tank, 150 gallons of 140 degree water is going to have to be put in the tank. If they can not get the hot water in the ballast tank with the equipment they have (and I don't know what it is), the boat would not be allowed on the water. 
who has a 150 gal water heater?
That makes no sense. there must be a chemical solution. I'd ask someone else, and get it in writing.
cholorine makes the most sense....
from what I hear large cargo ships generate cholorine at sea, to a certian %, then over time the cholrine weakens (2 wks?) to a point it can be relased into local waters.
That makes no sense. there must be a chemical solution. I'd ask someone else, and get it in writing.
cholorine makes the most sense....
from what I hear large cargo ships generate cholorine at sea, to a certian %, then over time the cholrine weakens (2 wks?) to a point it can be relased into local waters.
34 degree C is good enough thats 93.2 degrees
http://el.erdc.usace.army.mil/zebra/zmis/zmishelp3/zm_control_handbook_thermal_treatment.htm
The exposure time of chronic thermal treatments is affected by both the acclimation water temperature and the treatment water temperature. The required exposure time increases as the acclimation temperature increases and treatment temperature decreases (McMahon and Ussery 1995). Mitigation treatment with temperatures greater than or equal to 34 º C could induce near 100-percent kills of zebra mussel infestations within 6 to 26 hr depending on the prior acclimation/operating temperature (McMahon and Ussery 1995). At treatment temperatures ranging from 34 to 37º C, exposure times required for 100-percent kill of zebra mussel are short enough to be cost-effective, application temperatures are low enough to prevent major loss of production or excessive equipment wear and/or malfunction, and discharge temperatures are likely to be low enough to meet the discharge temperature restrictions of state and/or federal regulatory agencies (EPRI 1992, Claudi and Mackie 1994).
Source ACE:I just talked to (phone) someone at one of the Colorado State parks. I told them I had been to Lake Powell about three weeks ago with a water ballast sailboat (they are becoming more knowledgeable about water ballast) and they said the boat must be de-contaminated if it has been at a "suspect" lake. They said that if I have a 150 gallon tank, 150 gallons of 140 degree water is going to have to be put in the tank. If they can not get the hot water in the ballast tank with the equipment they have (and I don't know what it is), the boat would not be allowed on the water.
http://el.erdc.usace.army.mil/zebra/zmis/zmishelp3/zm_control_handbook_thermal_treatment.htm
The exposure time of chronic thermal treatments is affected by both the acclimation water temperature and the treatment water temperature. The required exposure time increases as the acclimation temperature increases and treatment temperature decreases (McMahon and Ussery 1995). Mitigation treatment with temperatures greater than or equal to 34 º C could induce near 100-percent kills of zebra mussel infestations within 6 to 26 hr depending on the prior acclimation/operating temperature (McMahon and Ussery 1995). At treatment temperatures ranging from 34 to 37º C, exposure times required for 100-percent kill of zebra mussel are short enough to be cost-effective, application temperatures are low enough to prevent major loss of production or excessive equipment wear and/or malfunction, and discharge temperatures are likely to be low enough to meet the discharge temperature restrictions of state and/or federal regulatory agencies (EPRI 1992, Claudi and Mackie 1994).
I hope I'm not going to regret being honest with the park (although don't have much choice, this one is in a fairly a remote area and some of the people I'm dealing with are my part time neighbors who I talk to all the time). The state park personnel very much follow procedure ONLY - trying to argue anything I think would be similar to going into the DMV and trying to negotiate a lower fee for your auto registration.
I just talked to the guy who does the hot water treatment (very helpful). They have to completely fill the tank with hot water and whatever they use has a through-put of something like 4 gallons/sec or maybe .4 gallons per sec (didn't know exactly). At .4 gallons per sec, that is under 7 minutes to fill the tank. The hose also seems long enough.
However, the nozzle they use is too big for my existing setup. I've had my tank overflow into the bilge when the inspection hole was not completely closed and the back of the boat loaded. So I glued in a piece of PVC pipe to raise the overflow level. This is going to need to be removed and the guy I talked to said he thought his smallest diameter nozzle would require a 1.25 inch hole (not confirmed, he was not at the equipment to do an actual measurement). So, looks like this is the next mod I'm going to do to the boat - make the inspection hole have at least a 1.25 inch inside diameter. I probably will go over and visit them to actually measure the nozzle before I start drilling.
After all this hassle, I will be extremely reluctant to go to any lake which they consider suspect. I'm guessing it will hurt businesses at suspect lakes and I don't want to guess about how honest people will be about where they have been. Ill probably still do the once per year trip to Lake Powell and get a once per year hot tank wash.
I just talked to the guy who does the hot water treatment (very helpful). They have to completely fill the tank with hot water and whatever they use has a through-put of something like 4 gallons/sec or maybe .4 gallons per sec (didn't know exactly). At .4 gallons per sec, that is under 7 minutes to fill the tank. The hose also seems long enough.
However, the nozzle they use is too big for my existing setup. I've had my tank overflow into the bilge when the inspection hole was not completely closed and the back of the boat loaded. So I glued in a piece of PVC pipe to raise the overflow level. This is going to need to be removed and the guy I talked to said he thought his smallest diameter nozzle would require a 1.25 inch hole (not confirmed, he was not at the equipment to do an actual measurement). So, looks like this is the next mod I'm going to do to the boat - make the inspection hole have at least a 1.25 inch inside diameter. I probably will go over and visit them to actually measure the nozzle before I start drilling.
After all this hassle, I will be extremely reluctant to go to any lake which they consider suspect. I'm guessing it will hurt businesses at suspect lakes and I don't want to guess about how honest people will be about where they have been. Ill probably still do the once per year trip to Lake Powell and get a once per year hot tank wash.
Here is the follow up on the ballast tank hot wash (done at Elevenmile state park Colorado). Edit to note boat is a 1990 26S.
Picture 1. hot wash equipement
Picture 2. "Rubber hose" nozzle is about 15/16 in diameter. Very close to the stock hole size of the 26C
Picture 3. I had drilled my access hole out to about 1.5 inch. That is a 1.25 inch ID PVC threaded pipe coupler inserted in the hole.
Picture 4. What is setting up (epoxy) now. The threaded coupler can be removed to have a 1.5 inch ID access. The threaded section glued to to top of the tank is part of a threaded cap and it glued in using JB epoxy (this has worked well in the past glueing PVC to fiberglass). Ill have two caps but the one shown in the picture has the nipple glued in on top for my manual high volume low pressure pump which I only use to get the boat unstuck in shallow water. When I close the cover, it somewhat seals the pump nipple from splashing when sailing - the tank fill and drains faster with the 1.5 inch ID vent hole.
Picture 5. Before I glued in the stuff in picture 4, we went sailing. Four of us in the boat mostly to the rear. The water level in the tank is right at the hole level and is spilling into the dam that I put in after one time finding a lot of water under my starboard seat.
It took about 25 minutes to fill the ballast tank (150 gallons I beleive). There was no charge from the state park.
Picture 1. hot wash equipement
Picture 2. "Rubber hose" nozzle is about 15/16 in diameter. Very close to the stock hole size of the 26C
Picture 3. I had drilled my access hole out to about 1.5 inch. That is a 1.25 inch ID PVC threaded pipe coupler inserted in the hole.
Picture 4. What is setting up (epoxy) now. The threaded coupler can be removed to have a 1.5 inch ID access. The threaded section glued to to top of the tank is part of a threaded cap and it glued in using JB epoxy (this has worked well in the past glueing PVC to fiberglass). Ill have two caps but the one shown in the picture has the nipple glued in on top for my manual high volume low pressure pump which I only use to get the boat unstuck in shallow water. When I close the cover, it somewhat seals the pump nipple from splashing when sailing - the tank fill and drains faster with the 1.5 inch ID vent hole.
Picture 5. Before I glued in the stuff in picture 4, we went sailing. Four of us in the boat mostly to the rear. The water level in the tank is right at the hole level and is spilling into the dam that I put in after one time finding a lot of water under my starboard seat.
It took about 25 minutes to fill the ballast tank (150 gallons I beleive). There was no charge from the state park.
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Walt, your mod to accommodate the zebra-mussel hot wash looks smart and sensible. We're going to be dealing with invasive-species problems more and more in the future, and anything that will help "cook out" the wee beasties will be worth doing.
Even though my boat is in the Chesapeake Bay for now, I'm putting your mod near the top of my "to-do" list. Some day soon I'm going to be trailering around the country, and likely as not some lake authority is going to require a hot wash of my ballast tanks. Best be prepared ....
Even though my boat is in the Chesapeake Bay for now, I'm putting your mod near the top of my "to-do" list. Some day soon I'm going to be trailering around the country, and likely as not some lake authority is going to require a hot wash of my ballast tanks. Best be prepared ....
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