Grateful Magic Valley growers and irrigation entities praise ISDA's quagga response

TWIN FALLS COUNTY, Idaho — After the announcement of quagga mussels detected in the Snake River last year and again this September, a coalition of major agricultural commodity organizations voiced their support for the Idaho State Department of Ag’s aggressive treatment plan. The risk to agriculture warrants swift action, they say.

• Quagga mussels were first detected in the Snake River near Twin Falls in September 2023. Within a week ISDA had put in place a plan to treat the river to eradicate the mussels.
• Constant sampling of water bodies in the state has led to the detection, this year, of more larval veligers of the mussel, indicating the presence of adults.
• Given the acute threat a widespread infestation of quagga mussels could have on agriculture in the region, ISDA is responding with an aggressive plan to once again treat the Snake River early this October.

(Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)

Overnight temperatures are dropping, and for most farmers the harvest has been in high gear for weeks.

“The next month will be really extreme. It’ll take us about a month to dig all our sugar beets,” said farmer Larry Hollifield.

For Hollifield, the next few weeks are the final push for the season.

“Yeah, this is the heart of it right here, when you start making your money and deliver and everything to get what you need,” Hollifield said. “So hopefully the bills pay themselves.”

After the announcement of quagga mussels detected in the Snake River last year and again this September, a coalition of major agricultural commodity organizations voiced their support for the Idaho State Department of Ag’s aggressive treatment plan.

“Last year it was real panic when they announced that,” Hollifield said. “That is, gosh, something you’re just scared of. It’s been on the radar for a long time and you’re just hoping it would never show up.”

“This structure is critically important,” said Jason Brown of the Twin Falls Canal Company, as he showed me around Milner Dam.

When the Milner Dam was completed in 1904 it kicked off a transformation of South-Central Idaho, allowing the desert to be irrigated.

“Milner Dam diverts water to three irrigation organizations that irrigate over 500,000 acres, and that’s substantial,” Brown said.

Brown said the canal company has had a lot of conversations with industry peers in other states where quagga mussels have taken hold.

“They’re clogging pipes are clogging pipes, and I’ve heard stories that instead of trying to get them out of the pipes they just pull the pipe out and put a new pipe in,” Brown said.

As soon as quagga gets a foothold, it’s no longer about getting rid of them, it’s about trying to keep water flowing in spite of them.

“If they were to take root in these types of structures, it would cost thousands to hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars for maintenance and repair,” Brown said. “How that would impact the economy would be significant.”

“Nothing would grow in this valley without water. We’re in the middle of the desert — the heat and everything was just annihilate everything if we didn’t have irrigation. So that’s required to grow any crop we do,” Hollifield said.