Zebra mussels may have finally met their match. Researchers in Ohio University's Russ College of Engineering and Technology have invented a mechanical device that controls the pesky mollusks by lowering the oxygen level in water. In recent field tests of the apparatus at a water treatment facility in the Cleveland suburb of Avon Lake, scientists found that zebra mussels were unable to attach to pipes in this oxygen-controlled environment.
The new device could control zebra mussels in an environmentally safe way at a significant savings to industry and consumers, says Tiao Chang, inventor of the device and OU professor of civil engineering. One immediate use for the portable instrument could be to help the shipping industry eliminate zebra mussels from the ballast tanks of ships.
Zebra mussels, which were first discovered in the United States in 1988, clog water intake pipes in many cities along the Great Lakes and the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Until now, chemicals have been used to control zebra mussel infestations, but installing chemical treatment systems is environmentally undesirable, and the added cost of the systems typically leads to higher water utilities for consumers.
Other environments in which the device can control troublesome zebra mussels are enclosed water conduits or in water supplies used as coolants in power plants, Chang says.
