Jeff Herod, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service nuisance species coordinator for Nevada and California, holds a vial of quagga mussel shells Friday while talking about the infiltration of the invasive species at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. The mussel, which originated in Eastern Europe and Ukraine, has made its way to Hoover Dam and a Central Arizona Project intake downstream on the Colorado River. Photo by John Gurzinski.

Fears that Lake Mead's mussel problem will spread throughout Western waterways grew closer to reality Friday with confirmation that divers found the quagga species at Hoover Dam, downstream in Lake Mohave and at the Lake Havasu intake where water is drawn for Arizona.

Their discovery Jan. 6 in Lake Mead's Boulder Basin and later near the Lake Havasu intake for a Southern California aqueduct has federal biologists and water agencies scrambling to assess how colonies could clog pipelines and how they will alter the landscape for aquatic life.

"Right now there is no silver bullet," said Jeff Herod, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service nuisance species coordinator for Nevada and California.

"It's going to impact recreational boaters and the ecosystem," he said at Boulder Beach where he traveled from Stockton, Calif., to join fishery biologists from three states to launch an awareness campaign.

"Raising awareness. That's one of the key issues. ... We don't know what the situation is going to be," he said.

Boaters can expect checkpoints where their vessels are hauled to California from infested waters.

Officials from Nevada and Arizona wildlife departments, the National Park Service, and the Bureau of Reclamation on Friday demonstrated how boats leaving infested waters should be cleaned with a bleach solution and allowed to dry for five days before launching on lakes and rivers that remain free of the pesky mollusks. Mud on trailers and soles of waders and soaked fishing gear can carry quaggas as well.

But the biggest threat is those that hitchhike to uninfested waters on thousands of boats that leave lakes on the lower Colorado River system -- Mead, Mohave and Havasu.

With a vial of quagga mussel shells in his hand, Herod explained the difference between them and the more commonly know zebra species that have been a headache for water suppliers and fishery biologists in the Great Lakes region.

The economic impact on the marine, power and water supply industry has been billions of dollars since they were released there more than a decade ago in ballast water from ships traveling from Eastern Europe and Ukraine, he said.

"The Great Lakes is a good reference but we need to look at this environment. There's going to be a shift in the ecology," Herod said.

Arizona Game and Fish Department spokesman Zen Mocarski said quagga mussels can compete for space and resources at the base of the food chain.

They can have a ripple effect on the ecosystem, impacting populations of zooplankton, insects, fish and crayfish.

Herod said biologists will pay close attention to how the invasive mussels of Lake Mead adapt to the lake's water chemistry, temperatures and depths, and monitor how rapidly colonies develop and spread.

"As this unfolds here, we will ... get the types of parameters we want to measure," he said.

Divers found quagga mussels Tuesday at between 35 feet and 80 feet below the surface at a Hoover Dam intake tower on the Nevada side of Lake Mead. Some quagga mussels were found Wednesday at an outlet about one-quarter mile downstream of the dam in Lake Mohave, Bureau of Reclamation spokesman Bob Walsh said.

"The bottom line, there is no impact on Hoover Dam operations," he said. The agency, however, will continue to monitor to ensure that mussels don't affect hydroelectric or water delivery on the lower Colorado River.

Mocarski said quaggas were found near a Central Arizona Project intake, which is more than a mile downstream of where they were found near an intake that feeds the aqueduct that delivers water to Los Angeles and San Diego.

No quagga were found in the aqueduct that feeds Lake Pleasant, Ariz.

Unlike the zebra species, quaggas have a slightly raised lateral ridge on their striped shells. Quagga shell halves also don't line up perfectly straight, having a more contorted appearance than the flat, clamlike look of zebras.

Like their cousin, quagga mussels are prolific breeders with a female laying up to 1 million eggs.

Juveniles grow into adults over months, depending on lake conditions. Once mature, they continue to grow, some up to 1 1/2 inches long. They feed by siphoning particles and cell life from the water.