Elodea History on Clarks Creek
Management of excessive elodea in Clark's Creek has been ongoing for more than 20 years in Puyallup. In 2012 a task force comprised of staff, Council, citizens, regulatory agencies, and other organizations worked together to develop agreeable solutions to the problem. The goal was to find sustainable solutions that would reduce the overall presence of elodea and sediment in Clark's Creek, improving the health of the creek.
Diver-assisted Suction Harvesting (DASH) was identified by the 2012 Elodea Task Force as the main method for elodea removal starting in 2013 onward. In this process, divers enter the water from pontoon-type boats, using surface-supplied air. The divers hand-pull the elodea from the stream, and feed it into a suction hose. The plant material is suctioned to the surface of the water, into mesh bags located on the boat. When several bags are full, they are each transported to the shore, and removed from the project site. This process reduces the fragmentation of the elodea, and completely removes the plant from the stream so it cannot re-plant itself, or grow back. The process is modeled after similar successful DASH projects in Thurston County, Washington and New York.