The unwelcome guest in California’s water infrastructure
The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) released a report on an upcoming threat to the state’s water infrastructure: golden mussels.
In October 2024, the invasive bivalve mollusc was first found at a water quality station in Stockton. The species poses a threat to California water infrastructure by clogging small-diameter pipelines, screens and filters
Since then, DWR has instigated a three-step plan to manage the species in water infrastructure.
Immediate actions include increasing facility maintenance, such as manual cleaning, flushing pipelines, power washing and hand-scraping mussels from infrastructure.
Midterm actions focus on mitigation tools; for example, the installation of ultraviolet treatment systems to kill larval golden mussels before they settle inside critical cooling, fire protection and service water pipelines
Long-term strategies include advancing research on the species and developing engineering solutions for mitigating this invasive species or others in the future.
