Colorado River faces new threat as zebra mussels take hold

By: Spencer Kristensen | FOX31 KDVR

DENVER (KDVR) — Colorado Parks and Wildlife officially declared a portion of the Colorado River as “infested” with invasive zebra mussels after sampling detected adult zebra mussels in the river and another nearby lake in Grand Junction, CPW announced in a press release on Monday afternoon.

“While this is news we never wanted to hear, we knew this was a possibility since we began finding veligers in the river,” said CPW Director Jeff Davis in the press release. “I can’t reiterate this enough. It was because we have a group of individuals dedicated to protecting Colorado’s water resources that these detections were made.”

On Aug. 28, the Aquatic Animal Health Lab suspected veligers, the microscopic larval stage of zebra mussels, were collected from West and East Lake, west of 31 Road, within the Wildlife Area Section of James M. Robb-Colorado River State Park.

On a follow-up a couple of days later on Sept. 2, staff returned and discovered suspected adult zebra mussels in the lake, which flows into a section of the Colorado River through a side channel.

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