BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK/KBFX) Drag boat racers are set to hit the water at Lake Ming in Bakersfield for the National Jet Boat Association’s May Madness sprint drag boat racing event as Kern County officials work to respond to an invasive mussel threat in local waterways.

Thomas Brown, chief intergovernmental and legislative affairs officer, said the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the U.S. Geological Survey have confirmed golden mussels are now present “inside key pieces of our local water infrastructure.”

On Tuesday, the Kern County Board of Supervisors declared a state of emergency and asked Gov. Gavin Newsom for help to combat the infestation.

Drag boat racers head to Lake Ming for Mat Madness as Kern responds to mussel threat (KBAK/KBFX)

Drag boat racers head to Lake Ming for Mat Madness as Kern responds to mussel threat (KBAK/KBFX)

John Bison, an agriculture industry worker, said he has been treating the mussels for months and warned of serious impacts.

“I am one of the guys that’s treating these mussels for the last six months – daily – and I can tell you it’s going to be devastating,” Bison said.

With the drag boat race approaching at Lake Ming, questions have surfaced about whether racers’ boats could be affected by invasive mussels.

Mike Declark, president of the National Jet Boat Association, said the mussel issue does not affect the racing boats. “It’s the quagga mussel and it does not affect us,” Declark said.

Declark said racers take precautions to avoid spreading mussels, emphasizing that the boats arrive dry and are not used in other waterways.

Drag boat racers head to Lake Ming for Mat Madness as Kern responds to mussel threat (KBAK/KBFX)

Drag boat racers head to Lake Ming for Mat Madness as Kern responds to mussel threat (KBAK/KBFX)

“These boats come, they’re dry, they’re prepped and they’re not in any other kind of waterway. They’re not in water ways that are going to be infected with quagga mussels,” he said.

He said the bigger concern is the potential for mussels to spread through other types of boats moving between waterways, including fishing boats.

Drag boat racers head to Lake Ming for Mat Madness as Kern responds to mussel threat (KBAK/KBFX)

Drag boat racers head to Lake Ming for Mat Madness as Kern responds to mussel threat (KBAK/KBFX)

“The issue you guys got here is who monitors when a fishing boat comes through. So, if you have a fishing boat that’s in somewhere and they have bait wells or something and they pick up that mussel in an infant stage before they become a clam and they come in your water and they breed,” Declark said.