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County health and mosquito-abatement staff press to expand drone larvicide pilot at Utah Lake
Summary
Health and mosquito-abatement officials told the commission that a drone pilot reduced mosquito larval counts at targeted sites and asked for increased funding to expand coverage and buy additional larvicide; commissioners asked for documentation and sole-source justification.
The commission held a work session on mosquito abatement where health-department staff and the mosquito-abatement director described last year's drone pilot and requested additional funding to expand it.
Dan Miller, mosquito-abatement director, described recent larval sampling results and said targeted drone treatment sharply reduced larval counts at treated sites. "We were getting 10 to 15 a dip, and we went back the next day and we had none," Miller said of a treated site. Miller said the county budgeted roughly $7,800 for the drone last year and asked to increase that to $10,000 to fly more acreage, plus about $18,000 to buy additional larvicide (VectoMax) that is on back order in some supply channels.
Staff explained why contracting the drone service was sole-source: buying and operating drones and licensing pilots is costly, and the county had been unable to find other local vendors providing the same specialized treatment. Miller said using contracted drone services reduced the need for larger, more-expensive airplane treatments and allowed crews to reach phragmites-heavy shoreline that is inaccessible to vehicles or foot access. The director said keyed treatments are more surgical and that the drone contractor assumes licensing and liability for flight operations.
Commissioners asked for documentation of the procurement process and evidence that no other supplier could provide the service locally; staff said they had searched regionally and that the program originated from experiments with a vendor who had worked with the Division of Wildlife Resources. The commission later untabled and approved a related amendment (item 2) by voice vote after the work session.
Staff said they will track data and report back after another season to quantify results; no additional county staffing or pilot hires were approved during this meeting.
