July 26th, 2017 by WCBC Radio

The Baltimore Sun reports Deep Creek Lake stewards are on guard for an invasion of non-native zebra mussels, but they aren’t about to drain the Western Maryland waterway because of it, as a widely shared article recently suggested. The posting on breakingnews247.net — a website that suggests visitors “write an article and prank your friends for fun” — said boaters had unknowingly introduced the bivalves to the Garrett County lake. In response, state natural resources police planned to empty it this week, “the only recourse that we can take to potentially save the future of the lake,” the article said.

The truth is that introduction of zebra mussels to Deep Creek was recently thwarted, at least for now, and draining of the lake isn’t on the table.

“There is no truth to this story. fakenews,” Stephen Schatz, a spokesman for the state Department of Natural Resources, wrote to many Twitter users who were sharing the article Tuesday.