Monday April 27, 2026
SJV Water —
The Arvin-Edison Water Storage District found invasive golden mussels in its system last December, quickly approved a $2.5 million budget and by the first week of April had already completed a 30-day treatment.
Results, so far, appear to be “complete mortality,” according to Resource Manager Sam Blue.
“Our board has been very aggressive on this issue,” Blue said of Arvin-Edison. “They understood how critical it was to beat the curve before it got out of control.”
Time is of the essence as golden mussel breeding ramps up with the temperature. The mussels are tiny but cling to equipment and inside pipes, building on each other until pipes are clogged and equipment fails.
“It’s a scary deal,” Blue said. “There’s a lot of talk about this summer being really bad. They’re established now and they’re starting to breed.”
Meanwhile, at its April 23 meeting, the Kern County Water Agency approved spending $350,000 to hire a consultant to develop a mussel treatment plan.
This comes more than a month after KCWA staff notified the board that they had already been battling an ongoing, significant infestation in a key piece of the county’s water infrastructure, the Cross Valley Canal.