Boat inspectors thought they may have a big find up at the Tahoe Keys.

A boat from Arizona ready to dock at Lake Tahoe is pulled aside for possible Quagga Mussel contamination.

They hit the jackpot.

The decontamination process takes hours with water heated to 150 Degrees.

But it’s worth it, when you consider Lake Tahoe and the consequences.

”We wouldn't be able to see the shoreline here anymore. We wouldn't be able to see the nice sandy beaches,” says Jonelle Bright a watercraft inspector.

Those boat inspections will continue this summer at Lake Tahoe, but five hundred miles to the south at Lake Mead the war is being waged against the Quagga, where there are efforts to completely eliminate the invasive species,. As a matter of fact, this place is known as ground zero for the west.

The Desert Research Institute’s Kumud Acharya and his research associate Diane Momberg come to Lake Mead about every two weeks.

Besides collecting water samples they also look for Quagga Mussels. The invasive species were first discovered here in 2007. These days they are every where.

They find what they are looking for underneath the skirt on a dock.

"They are mussels on mussels," says Acharya

He adds, “One adult mussel can have up to a million babies in one year.”

They don't just reproduce. They compete with other species for food. The problem is, they do it better and the waste they release creates swaths of dead zones in lakes.

But that's not all, so prolific, they clog water up take and outfall pipes. Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the United States, is also the major water source for Las Vegas.

Acharya: “That's one of the water intake for SNWA yes,” says Acharya as he points to the west of our location,

“They are every where. You can't just take them out. You can't scrape them out. You have to do a power scrapping, power spraying.” says Acharya

And that doesn’t even kill them.

“Who knows what's gonna happen when the mussels continue to grow,” says Acharya.

But the researcher isn't giving up hope, especially when he considers his work with Marrone Bio Innovations.

At a Las Vegas lab at the Desert Research Institute, the muscles brought in from Lake Mead, live the life of luxury. In aquariums filled with Lake Mead water, they are fed algae once a day--all to mimic their natural conditions. That is until they ingest an experimental bacteria that kills them but leaves other species unaffected

“It seems to work. When we want to scale this research and application, then you are not talking about a beaker or a couple of beakers, you are talking about a large system. It’s one step at a time. Through small applications probably, and then see how well it works in the field and then go from there,” Acharya.

And there's another big unanswered question, as good as the Quagga Mussels are at surviving, multiplying, and overtaking bodies of water, will they eventually develop an immunity to the bacteria?

Quagga Mussels do well at Lake Mead because of the high calcium level.

Lake Tahoe has much less calcium however, researchers says Quagga Mussels would learn how to adapt to Tahoe water with no problem should they be introduced to the lake.