“STOCKTON, Calif. — Port officials in Stockton have removed hundreds of thousands of pounds of an invasive plant that has clogged their waterway and other waterways and harbors in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
The Record of Stockton reports (http://bit.ly/1gfkPi9) that more than 375,000 pounds of water hyacinth have been removed from the Stockton Deep Water Channel in the past several weeks.
Port officials are trying to avoid a repeat of last year, when ships stopped navigating the channel at night because they could not differentiate land from mats of hyacinth.
Port officials say a state spraying program failed to control the hyacinth, so they hired a Bay Area company to remove it.
When left unchecked, water hyacinth forms a solid carpet across the water surface that can clog propellers, rudders and water intakes.”
