The Okanagan Basin Water Board is sending a message to the provincial government - increase the funding from $3.3 million to $5.5 million for 2025 to operate the provincial Invasive Mussel Defence Program (IMDP).
The question remains, however, whether anyone in Victoria is listening.
Beyond the funding request, the letter sent to Water, Land and Resource Stewardship Minister Randene Neill also asks for mandatory inspections for all watercraft entering B.C., for B.C. to call on more fiscal support from the federal government for resources and support, for B.C, to work with Alberta to create a Western Canada Mussel Free Zone and align on penalties across provinces; and create a clear policy to limit chemical use as a rapid response.
The $5.5 million is considered adequate funding from the IMDP total program costs including salary, travel, vehicles, lake monitoring, public outreach, equipment and maintenance given the closer proximity and increased threat from quagga mussels in Idaho and golden mussels in California.
"This would allow the IMDP to fully staff more inspection stations, filling oversight gaps in routes coming into the province, enhancing inspection capacity along the southern border crossings and to do more work on lake monitoring, science and policy," says a report to the water board from deputy administrator James Littley.
"This budget could also support the further work on the Wildlife Act review, or on other policy development to implement mandatory watercraft inspections.
"Provincial staff simply do not have the resources or capacity to accomplish the work and analysis that is needed to prevent a mussel introduction."
In recent years, the water board has been a vocal voice raising concerns about the environment and economic impact of quagga mussels reaching waterways in B.C., advocating those concerns to both the provincial and federal governments.
The water board had previously called for a minimum of $4 million in dedicated funding to run the IMDP.
This figure was derived from the equivalent figure, counting for inflation, used as a benchmark in 2019 when the province intercepted more than 52,000 watercraft for inspection.
In the last published report for the IMDP in 2023, a budget of $3.3 million was approved but the actual expenditure amounted to only $3 million.
"This budget covered only 48 inspection staff, compared to 64 in 2019, and only six permanent and two roving inspection stations, compared to 12 in 2019," states the report.
With invasive mussels having already invaded many North American lakes, the Pacific Northwest has been the final bastion of defence against further mussel infestations.
That defence initiative was rattled when invasive mussels were detected in the Snake River in Idaho in 2023.
Aggressive chemical treatments that destroyed much of a portion of the river's ecosystem did not wipe out the invasive mussel population, leaving open the possibility for the mussels to move on from the Snake River into the Columbia River system, which offers a direct connection to the Okanagan watershed.
Provincial studies have indicated the economic impact of a mussel outbreak in the Okanagan Lake watershed ranges from $64 to $127 million annually.
