Lake County board approves first reading to expand vessel inspection ordinance to cover golden mussel; fines to be revisited

The Lake County Board of Supervisors on Monday approved the first reading of an ordinance amending Article 9, Chapter 15 of the Lake County Code to expand the county's water vessel inspection program to include golden mussels and other invasive freshwater mussels.

The amendment "expand[s] the water vessel inspection program to include golden mussel mussels and other invasive freshwater mussels," Director O'Pagier of the Water Resources Department told the board, saying the change aims to strengthen prevention and enforcement amid new invasive-species detections in the Bay Area.

County officials said the vessel-inspection program, originally created to defend Lake County against quagga and zebra mussels, will now explicitly cover other freshwater mussels and create a fee-based inspection structure for watercraft launched in Lake County. The board voted to adopt the ordinance on first reading, read it by title only and schedule a second reading at the next…