Temperatures along Idaho 95 just north of Weiser crept toward 90 degrees Tuesday morning as inspector Rey Castillo waved a large pickup truck towing a huge silver fishing boat off the highway.

Gary Sparks of Nyssa, Ore., was headed north to a menu of popular Idaho fishing spots like Brownlee and Mann Creek reservoirs.

Idaho now requires every boat on specific roads to pull over so workers can check for and clean off any potential infestations of invasive quagga and zebra mussels before they hit Idaho lakes and rivers.

And it's not just once. For now, inspectors want to see every boat each time it passes one of 18 sites along roads leading to popular water. Eight of the sites are now active. Inspectors attach to clean boats an orange breakaway tag that snaps off when the watercraft is launched.

Though the inspection stops aren't yet being enforced, failing to stop at a station could come with stiff penalties under the state's invasive species act. Boaters who intentionally skip the inspection could face a misdemeanor charge and fines of up to $3,000 or civil penalties of up to $10,000.

Sparks said he understands the need.

"If it stops invasive species from coming to our Idaho waters, we have to do it," Sparks said as he pulled an anchor rope out of the boat for inspectors.

Most of the inspection sites are focusing on boats coming into Idaho from out of the state, said Lloyd Knight, administrator of the division of plant industries for the Idaho Department of Agriculture.

"Weiser and Lewiston are the ones that will see the most local traffic," he said.

The program marks the first time an Idaho governor has used a special emergency funding mechanism called a "deficiency warrant" to prevent a catastrophe instead of to respond to a disaster, said Rep. Eric Anderson, R-Priest Lake, the lawmaker who pushed the quagga mussel bill through the Legislature.

"Every time we have used the deficiency warrants has been in a reactive manner to catastrophic events like wildfire," Anderson said. "I'm just so pleased the Legislature, and more specifically the governor, is so in tune to this. We have an opportunity now to prevent one of the biggest ecological disasters that could hit our state. I'm thrilled."

The state is using a portion of $5 million in emergency funding to get the inspection sites up and running. The ongoing preventative program is funded by a special invasive species sticker approved during the 2009 legislative session. Each boat must have a sticker, ranging from $5 to $20. Boaters without a sticker on an Idaho lake or river could face a $57 fine.

Quagga and zebra mussels reproduce rapidly, clog machinery and water pipes and destroy aquatic ecosystems. Once established, they're nearly impossible to eradicate.

Lawmakers feared the fingernail-sized mussels, which crowd out native species, were lurking at Idaho's borders. If they spread to Idaho's waterways, irrigation canals, hydroelectric dams, fish hatcheries and drinking water, it could cost the state more than $90 million a year.

The mussels were inadvertently introduced into the Great Lakes in the mid-1980s, and have since spread throughout the East and Midwest. In 2007, they were found in Lake Mead on the Nevada-Arizona border and have since been found in California, Colorado and Utah.

Boater Gary Cushman of Weiser had already stopped twice this week for the breakaway inspection tag as he headed north on Idaho 95.

"I don't have a problem with it," he said.

The inspection signs are small and can be difficult to see. Some boaters on Tuesday drove right by the inspection station without even slowing.

Knight said the inspection program has only come together in the past 60 to 90 days, and they still are ironing out wrinkles.

Some of the larger inspection sites near Idaho borders likely will have larger, more visible electronic signs, he said.

Kathleen Kreller: 377-6418