Lake Cachuma opened Friday to boaters just happy to get back in the water.

It was the first day the new rules were in place to protect the lake from the Quagga mussel, which can quickly destroy a lake's ecosystem, clog water pipes and cause costly maintenance for water resource agencies.

Although boats were subjected to a visual inspection at the main entrance, a high-powered wash at the west marina parking lot area and a final double-check from a park official at the launch site, boaters agreed that the process was better than a closed lake.

By noon, more than 40 boats had passed through the process, but three were turned away for not being clean and dry, said park naturalist Liz Mason-Gaspar.

Gaspar and other park employees performed duties outside of their normal job description to help with the new regulations.

Jack Barros was the first boater to request a boat launch tag that attaches the boat to the trailer and cannot be reattached if removed. He went through the procedure not to launch the boat, but to avoid the process when he comes next week to fish.

Richard Baker of Santa Barbara said he thought it would take much longer to launch his boat, but was surprised.

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“It really wasn't that big of a deal,” Baker said. “It took maybe 10, 15 minutes.”

The wash took about 10 minutes and consisted of a hose connected to a 1,500 to 2,500 psi pressure pump and 140 to 160 degree water sprayed on the outside of the boat.

Park maintenance leader Dan Pedersen said they went through a day of training and learned where to look and what to look for when spraying the boats.

He also said the boaters that came through were in good humor and most felt “privileged to get to fish than anything else.”

The high-pressure washers were not rented, as Hernandez had told the county supervisors, but borrowed from the county public works department and Waller Park. He said they will eventually have to purchase equipment specifically for Lake Cachuma, but for now their biggest cost is staffing.

“We're right at the time where we'd hire summer seasonal help, but we'll still have to hire another four or five people on top of that,” Lake Cachuma Operations Manager Mitch Mediros said.

The county parks department said Tuesday that boats that did not pass the visual inspection would be quarantined on-site for 14 days, but that was not the case Friday.

The boats that were not allowed past the main entrance were given the choice of remaining on-site in dry boat storage or leaving with a tag on the boat and returning after two weeks.

Marvin Solorio, a park employee inspecting boats said the boat's registration number and information goes into the park's database to ensure that boaters do not try to come back before their wait period is over.

Mediros said the boats were turned away because of standing water in the bilge and engine area. He said the boaters were “a little mad” but one opted to stay and fish off the dock.

According to the checklist Solorio carried, the quarantine is only seven days if the boat is less than 24 feet in length, fails inspection but there are no mussels, out of state boats or boats from San Diego or Riverside. Otherwise, it is a 14-day quarantine for boats over 24 feet in length and boats carrying Quagga mussels.

Mediros, Supervisor Brooks Firestone and County Parks Director Daniel Hernandez said boats must be clean and dry in order to proceed past the main entrance.

When asked if the supervisors had gone overboard with preventive actions, Firestone responded, “We may be going above and beyond, but it is extremely important we do so - if we underestimate the danger it could be a horrible and costly mistake.”

Since late January, no boats have been able to launch because work was being completed and the water was too high to launch at other sites.

Then Cachuma Operations and Maintenance Board (COMB) came to the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors with worries over the Quagga and Zebra mussels and a call to close the lake to private boaters.

The mussels can migrate by boats transferred from an infested body of water to another. Once the dime-sized mollusk enters an environment they can cause damaging ecological changes and gross infrastructure damages, according to the California Department of Fish and Game.

COMB's worries stemmed from the fact that 80 percent of the South Coast's water supply comes from Lake Cachuma.

The Supervisors voted Tuesday to enact a series of protocols designed to prevent the Quagga mussel from hitchhiking on boats.

COMB was the only entity involved in establishing protocols for Lake Cachuma not represented at the Lake Cachuma launch opening Friday.

Sam Womack can be reached at 739-2218 or swomack@santa

mariatimes.com.

March 30, 2008