The dreaded, destructive golden mussel has become an urgent topic among San Joaquin Valley water agencies prompting near daily meetings on how to combat the tiny mollusk that is clogging pipes and equipment from Stockton to Arvin. … After golden mussels were discovered in the Arvin-Edison Water Storage District late last year, Friant did a top-to-bottom inspection of the southern reaches of the Friant-Kern Canal while water demands are low. Crews looked under bridges, headgates, turnouts — every nook and cranny where the mussel could attach itself – blasting colonies with lethal hot water and scraping them off by hand while chemical solutions are researched.