Nichole Whiteley, Daily Herald

For decades, quagga mussels have been an invasive species for countless American waterways. On Wednesday, the Department of Wildlife Resources unveiled the state’s second boat decontamination dip tank, this one at Utah Lake State Park.

“This dip tank is incredible technology and development in the protection of our resources and allows us to provide 100% confidence in killing quagga mussels with this dip tank and a far quicker time. It’s more efficient, and is the next level in our defense against the further infestation of many waters,” said Bruce Johnson, DWR aquatic invasive species statewide operations lieutenant.

The dip tank will open fully on Friday and be available seven days a week from 10 a.m. through 8 p.m. until the end of boating season in October. It is completely open to the public at no cost for boat decontamination. Anyone interested in just decontaminating a boat at the state park can enter free of charge, Johnson said, as long as they tell the worker on site.

“This dip tank is that next level of protection and technology that allows us to more effectively decontaminate and protect all of our water resources,” Johnson said.

Quagga mussels were introduced to the United States in the 1980s, infested Lake Mead in 2007 and Lake Powell in 2013, where DWR’s efforts began. In 2022, 215,000 people visited Utah Lake. In 2020, DWR inspected approximately 21,000 boats, and decontaminated 1,250, at the lake. Across the state, they inspected 450,000 watercraft and decontaminated 11,000.

Nichole Whiteley, Daily Herald

Before a boat goes into the tank, the bilge area is pre-inspected to determine if it needs to be treated with a hose, and the sea strainer is checked for adult mussels. Two people must be present to put their boat in the tank, due to safety hazards with climbing over the hot water into the boat and back to the car to drive the boat out.

The Clean Wake dip tank is a pool of 110-degree water that is used to prevent the spread of Quagga mussels. The only other dip tank in the state is at Lake Powell and was installed on May 1, 2021. Garrett Atwood and Jonas Hyita, co-founders and owners of Clean Wake LLC and creators of the dip tank, said they have a contract with the state to build tanks at Sand Hollow, Willard Bay, Flaming Gorge and potentially Pineview Reservoir, with the opportunity for further expansion.

The tank is 40 feet long and can accommodate any boat that will fit. It was specifically designed for wakeboard and surfboard boats because of their intake system, which can be difficult to decontaminate, Atwood explained.

While the old system needed the water to be 140 degrees to kill mussels, the Clean Wake dip tank only needs the water at 110 degrees because of the longer exposure time. Johnson explained that, through their testing, they discovered Quagga mussels can be killed with an exposure time of two and a half minutes in 110-degree water.

The total time to decontaminate each boat in the Clean Wake dip tank is 15 minutes or less with Wednesday’s demonstration taking only six minutes. Previous methods for decontamination at lakes around Utah took 45 minutes to an hour, which does not include the time waiting in line.

Nichole Whiteley, Daily Herald

The entire tank uses 8,000 gallons of water that are pumped through the boiler, a two-stage filtration system and ultraviolet light to kill algae before being pumped back into the tank. It takes two to three hours at 55 gallons a minute to circulate all of the water through the filtration system, a process that makes the water 30 degrees hotter than when it started, until it reaches 110 degrees and stays at that temperature. No chemicals are used.

Hyita said the system is also eco-friendly through its conservation of water. While it uses 8,000 gallons, the water is recycled through the filtration system to be used again in the tank. When the tank needs to be drained and refilled, Atwood said they use the excess water on nearby trees.

Johnson said the Department of Natural Resources for the State of Utah has been discussing a similar system for nearly a decade. However, they had no idea of how to implement the dip tank, so when Atwood and Hyita came to them with their expertise in the area, Johnson said, “We put our minds together and then came up with this.”

Atwood and Hyita are brothers-in-law and 50% partners of Clean Wake. They created the technology after vacationing in Lake Powell with their families, waiting over three hours in line to get their boat decontaminated and putting their backgrounds in the oil, mining and gas industry to work. “We both bring a lot of expertise to these projects, so it’s been a great partnership,” Hyita said.

Clean Wake, DWR and Utah State Parks partnered for the project.

Nichole Whiteley, Daily Herald

“Partnerships that we’ve developed with legislators and the legislature have provided us the resources to move forward to develop this technology. Clean Lake has been an amazing partner that’s allowed us to produce this technology and move forward,” Johnson said.

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