It’s been 30 years since mussels were first detected in Michigan; today, some parts of Lake Erie are covered with 70,000 mussels per square meter. That kind of mass can cripple large industrial systems, said Professor Steve Bollens, an ecologist at Washington State University Vancouver.
“The threat to hydropower infrastructure is huge,” he told The Oregonian/OregonLive. “All of the pipes and pumps of infrastructure would be subject to fouling by these encrusting mussels.”