MENDOCINO CO., 9/19/26 — Sonoma Water, which used to be known as the Sonoma County Water Agency, and which provides water to parts of Sonoma and Marin counties, will keep inspecting every boat that launches at Lake Mendocino for two more years, after its board voted Sept. 15 to accept a $400,000 state grant.
The grant from the California State Parks Division of Boating and Waterways pays for watercraft inspections and early detection work through Oct. 15, 2028, Sonoma Water said in a press release. The previous state grant, also $400,000, ran out Sept. 15, the day of the vote, according to a 2024 release from the agency.
The vote follows a close call at Lake Sonoma. On June 26, a trained mussel detection dog alerted inspectors to a wakeboard boat trying to launch there, the release said. Inspectors saw no mussels, but they turned the boat away and told the owner to have it professionally decontaminated. A water sample from the boat later came back from the lab with results consistent with the biological markers of golden mussels, according to the release…