
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, November 19, 1993                   TAG: 9311190271
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

SLIMY INVADERS MASS IN TENN.; OUR STATE NEXT

The striped scourge of the Great Lakes has made its way to the Tennessee River, and a biology professor says they'll be plentiful.

Virginia officials say it's only a matter of time before the pesky bivalves show up here.

The thumbnail-sized mollusks clog water-intake pipes, smother native water life and suck nutrients out of the water. Municipalities have spent millions trying to control them.

"By 1996, we should expect wide-scale establishment of zebra mussels throughout the Tennessee River," said Bruce Conn, associate professor of biology at the University of the South at Sewanee, Tenn.

Microscopic larvae were first discovered in the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers about a year and a half ago, Conn said. Now adult zebra mussels are in "every single dam and navigational lock system" upstream from Kentucky Lake, where the Tennessee meets the Ohio River.

"Virginia is likely their next stop," said Sue Bruenderman, an aquatic biologist with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries in Blacksburg.

So far, scientists have found no way of halting the infestation.

Bruenderman said Virginia has enlisted the help of fisherman to spot the exotic invader. Identification cards with pictures of the black-and-white striped mussel have been distributed to stores that sell fishing licenses.

State bridge-inspection crews have been trained to identify the mussel. Water plants and power stations also are on alert.

Last month, six dead mussels were discovered on the hull of a yacht moved from Michigan to Smith Mountain Lake in Virginia.

by CNB