Here’s my solution (and this is 1/2 serious):
Since mussels can’t propagate upstream and there are currently no mussels upstream of Lake Powell, open all the gates at Glen Canyon Dam and drain the entire contents into Lake Mead - which at current water levels, it could hold. This will make all the mussels die. Once it is drained shut the head gates at Flaming Gorge Dam and other similar dams in Colorado to really make it dry at Lake Powell, only releasing just enough water to serve the needs of the communities downstream to Hite, until just before the water at those dams goes over the top. Make sure no water runs into Lake Powell for the necessary time period to guarantee the death of the little buggers.
The river runner crowd should really like this - they’ll get a huge flood above 100,000 cfs in the Grand Canyon - fun for them and a rebuilding of their precious sandbars that they haven’t seen in their life time.
All the endangered species in the rivers could be replanted from hatcheries. All other aquatic life could likewise be planted in the Lake and adjusted as desired - like starting with a clean slate - can you say "goodbye carp" (at least for awhile).
What to do about the dead pool that wouldn’t drain? Not sure. Could it be pumped out? Is there really no tunnel to get rid of it? Las Vegas is now pumping from the bottom of Lake Mead (which they haven’t always done - so it can be done).
Once Lake Powell is dry and all the mussels are confirmed dead shut the headgates tight and refill Lake Powell. Everything below Lake Mead can consume it’s normal amount of water out of the now filled Lake Mead for about 4 years while this is going on.
Drawbacks:
After the massive flooding of Grand Canyon which may go on for several months it drys up too.
No Lake Powell for 3 years or so?
Advantages:
Think what the TrashTrackers could get done in those 3 years!
Let the scientists go bat-crap crazy for 3 years studying submerged dinosaur tracks, Anasazi ruins, sediment patterns, yada, yada, yada. Big win for them!
Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Think how much you'll look forward to returning to Lake Powell in that 4th year with clean, mussel free, beautiful green water surrounded by gorgeous red rocks.
With slight variations of this process all downstream dams could be cleaned out in successive order relying on the fact (or hope) that the mussels indeed can not swim up stream.
When the entire system is clean use 10% of the money that is being spent now annually to make sure proper protocols are implemented and maintained that should have been done from the beginning to prevent infection. That would be an annual budget of $50 million (according to the article).
Take the remainder $450M for proper restoration of the fisheries, habitat, hiring whoever wants a job in Page/Bullfrog to oversee and manage the cleanup of Lake Powell for those 3 years, haul water to every locale that can't get by without Lake Powell water (Page, Bullfrog, Lee's Ferry and maybe one or two more places), further lower the Castle Rock Cut, conduct critical ramp repairs around the Lake, heck with a budget of $450M guarantee the affected business owners in Page and Bullfrog what their average profits would have been for those 3 years while they play in Cancun, haul all the sediment out of Hite and truck it to Lees Ferry, etc. In fact, knock yourself out on this one, take 2 years annual savings for your budget for these projects and spend around $1B. Only 2 years of savings!!
There is a limited window of opportunity to make this happen. One of 2 things could happen that would make this exponentially more difficult. First, we could get a winter like the Sierras got last year (think Oroville). Right now all of Lake Powell would fit in Lake Mead - that may not always be the case. Second, there are no established mussel infestations above Lake Powell. We all know how fast can change.3
I will only take a paltry 1% if the annual savings for my fee and only until I die - maybe another 30 years or so. A “mere” $5M per year
