Hudson River in New York ‘Greatly Infested’ With Invasive Species

Officials are worried after an invasive species was found in some drinking water in New York, local lakes and throughout the Hudson River.

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In the fall, the Copake Lake Conservation Society found zebra mussels at the South end of Copake Lake.

"The reason for concern is that the mussels have very sharp edges, so they are a hazard. They can accumulate in motors and become a problem," Copake Lake Conservation Society.

Zebra mussels are an invasive, fingernail-sized mollusk native to freshwaters in Eurasia. Their name comes from the dark, zig-zagged stripes on each shell. It is estimated that zebra mussels arrived in the Great Lakes in the 1980s via ballast water discharged by large ships from Europe. Zebra mussels negatively impact ecosystems in many ways, including filtering out algae that native species need for food and attaching to-and incapacitating-native mussels.

Recently, zebra mussels were found in several other lakes in the Hudson Valley and the "Hudson River is greatly infested with them," according to the Copake Lake Conservation Society.

According to the New York Invasive Species Information zebra mussels have been confirmed in the Hudson River in Albany, Kingston, Poughkeepsie, Beacon, Newburgh and much more.

Zebra mussels can quickly take over once established in a waterbody. These invasive pests will disrupt the food chain, change water chemistry, and clog water intake and delivery systems for drinking water, irrigation, and hydro power, according to the DEC.

Live mussels released into a storm drain or flushed could be introduced into a waterway, starting a new population and causing significant damage, officials add.

In 2020 the invasive zebra mussels were discovered in Delta Lake, which supplies water to DEC's Rome Fish Hatchery