ZEBRA MUSSEL DISCOVERY

Gary Reaves reports

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LAKE TEXOMA — Scenic Lake Texoma hardly looks like a war zone, but a new discovery may mean a serious battle is ahead and state fisheries biologist Bruce Hysmith is already on the front lines.

Hysmith has become extra vigilant since the discovery of the first live zebra mussel ever to be found living in a Texas lake.

"These are about the size of your thumbnail," he said of the mussel.

Zebra mussels have already taken over two lakes in Oklahoma at Oologah and Keystone.

The small freshwater mussel arrived in the United States over 20 years ago. But up until the Lake Texoma find, they have never been known to exist in Texas.

Their sharp edged shells make barefoot strolls on the beaches nearly impossible, and they can multiply fast.

If they get a foothold in Texoma, they could adhere to critical equipment, potentially cripplying hydropower dams and clogging up water intake lines. That could mean problems for cities like Sherman and Denison, which get their drinking water from the lake.

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It may also mean woes for Plano, McKinney and surrounding suburbs that get water pumped from Lake Texoma to Lake Lavon.

Mussels come in on boats from states up north. Sharp-eyed marina worker Marty Ulmer spotted the mussels on a boat from Green Bay, Wisconsin

"Before we launched it, we looked around the boat and found the mussels on it," he said.

For biologists, the biggest fear is that the pipeline to Lake Lavon would carry mussels as well. Warm waters are supposed to kill zebra mussels, but they've been spotted as far south as New Orleans.

E-mail greaves@wfaa.com