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The Bureau of Reclamation prior to the mussels arriving,
we didn’t need to worry about mussel fouling or any sort of things attaching to our infrastructure.
So that has put a new emphasis on the types of coatings that we evaluate as well as use for corrosion protection.
The initial test was to determine what types of coatings to focus in on,
and the foul release coatings looked like they were going to work and outperform the anti-fouling coatings for longevity.
Anti-fouling coatings do not work in flowing conditions because the ions that are released,
so the copper or toxins that are released off that coating usually they form a small barrier or a zone
where the toxic concentrations are high enough to prevent the fouling from happening.
Now in flowing water those toxins are washed downstream and there’s no barrier there to prevent that fouling from occurring.
Foul release coatings are coatings that contain silicon or fluorine in the coating system and they actually are more self-cleaning,
so kind of think about your Teflon pans or silicon rubber spatulas that type of stuff,
there easily cleaned so mussels can’t attach to those types of coatings systems.
So at this point we have tested over a hundred different types of coatings and materials,
and some of those coatings that we tested initially in that first year are actually still in the water today,
so we have got six years of full test data on them.
We’ve been focusing on finding coatings that are more durable with slightly different chemistries that allow them to
maintain their fouling release performance while giving a harder surface that’s more durable.
We’ve had several durable foul release coatings tested already over the past few years and are continuing to test more of those products.
Lately we've been working with manufacturers and developers to test some more experimental coatings that aren’t quite ready
for commercial approval yet, and working with those manufactures we’ve identified several coatings
that are showing promise with regards to both durability and foul release performance.
We’ve got about a year and a half’s worth of data on two products in particular that we’re pretty optimistic about.
We have a study that’s been ongoing since about May of 2008.
We do field testing down at Parker Dam which is on Lake Havasu in Arizona on the lower Colorado River.
This site was selected because it was heavily infested with mussels as well as the high reproductive rates and growth rates
because in the water conditions there allow mussels to reproduce year around and they never stop reproducing,
whereas in the great lakes or in a colder climate the mussels only have that summer period where they reproduce.
Parker Dam we hung panels off the side of the dam, and this is more of a static environment.
There is a little bit of flow so we call it a quasi-static environment but the flow rates are very very low.
Parker Dam also gave us a unique opportunity to hang some floor grates off the trash rack structure so we also had a dynamic exposure.
This is very unique because previous research did not have these capabilities
they only had more of a static environment to test their products.
Right now we have quite a few material transfer agreements (MTA’s) set up with industrial partners
that are coming up with the newest, latest experimental type coating systems.
So these MTA’s are protecting both Reclamation and the industrial partner on developing these systems.
So the material transfer agreements are going to help Reclamation by ending up with a more durable coating system
that prevents the mussels from attaching and the industrial partner or university
they benefit by having real life experimental results on the zebra and quagga mussels to determine whether or not
they prevent the mussels from attaching, and then they can go and commercialize and know for sure that there coating systems will work.
Mussel fouling is a big problem potentially for Reclamation and facility owners,
and has the potential to causing a lot of operating headaches.
We’re hoping we can come up with a good solution that’s going to help prevent a lot of these problems
and reduce maintenance cost over the long term.
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