Forest Preserve Flexes 9,000 Mussels for DuPage River Cleanup

WHEATON, IL — DuPage County forest preserve officials are enlisting the help of 9,000 mussels to help keep the DuPage River clean. The mussels will be released in the river’s West Branch between Warrenville and Naperville from May to October, Peoria Public Radio reported.

The Forest Preserve District’s strategy is to help the existing mussel population grow because mussels naturally filter water. Jessi DiMartini, the aquatic research coordinator for the forest preserve district told US News and World Report, “You don’t notice the little creatures under the water, but they’re there filtering away.”

Unfortunately, mussels are also on the brink of extinction. Many species are already extinct and still more are endangered. The West Branch of the DuPage River formerly had 15 species of mussels, but that number has dwindled to nine, according to US News and World Report. Adding 9,000 mussels to the DuPage River should help the population grow as well. Mussels can live up to 100 years and they can be an inexpensive way to keep the DuPage River’s ecosystem clean.

Research from Stanford University outlines how the mussels work to keep freshwater ecosystems free of pollution. This makes mussels the perfect natural tools for the DuPage River cleanup. Chemicals in river water can be dangerous for the other aquatic life, but the Stanford study reported that mussels “removed up to 80 percent of some of the chemicals [produced by invasive Asian clams” within 72 hours. The study’s co-author, RIchard Luthy, said, “Each native mussel filters about two liters of water a day, so it doesn’t take a whole lot to improve water quality.”

Apparently it just takes a little...mussel.

>>Video credit: DuPage Forest Preserve YouTube

>>Image credit: By U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Northeast Region [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons