The Adirondack
Park Agency in July voted to hold a formal public hearing
this summer on an "experiment" to use chemical
pesticides to kill Eurasian watermilfoil in Lake George.
This chemical pesticide has never been allowed in the Adirondack
Park.
The Adirondack
Council had urged the APA to hold a formal hearing after
the applicant admitted that the pesticide it plans to use
will also kill rare and threatened native plants along with
the milfoil. Even harming protected plants carries a $25
fine per plant.
The Council
wanted the APA to hold a public hearing to resolve this
issue, and others, before the APA rules on the application.
The adjudicatory hearing ordered in mid-July by the APA
Board of Commissioners will allow the APA to gather sworn
testimony, while allowing the Adirondack Council and other
parties to cross examine consultants and expert witnesses.
The Council also
cautioned the applicant that the Council would fight any
attempt to loosen state health regulations that currently
prevent the application of the pesticide near drinking water
intakes. The applicant's draft environmental impact statement
makes it clear that talks were already underway to petition
the NYS Health Department for permission to apply the pesticide
Sonar in the southern basin of the lake. That's where most
of the milfoil is growing adjacent to a home or business,
many of which draw water from the lake.
Unlike exotic
invasive plants such as milfoil, native plants play an integral
role in the lake's ecosystem. Native plants provide food
and shelter to fish and other aquatic animals and are compatible
with other native plants. They remove nutrients and other
particles that can make the water cloudy.
Invasive exotics
are non-native species accidentally transported to a new
location. Eurasian watermilfoil was brought to Lake George
in boats and trailers. Exotics sometimes out-compete native
plants and overtake their habitats. It is sometimes necessary
for people to intervene to protect native plants. But the
method chosen makes a world of difference.
The applicant
for the APA pesticide permit is the Lake George Park Commission
(LGPC). So far, the commission has employed only non-toxic
methods -- hand harvesting, plastic mats, suction hoses
and the like -- to control Eurasian watermilfoil. The LGPC
has employed those methods very successfully for many years.
Eurasian milfoil
has been present in Lake George since 1985. Thanks to the
LGPC's non-toxic methods, it covers less than 2 percent
of the lake bottom.
The Adirondack
Council has offered to work with the LGPC to find more money
to continue the non-toxic harvesting and control methods.
(The Council believes that chemical pesticides are a last
resort, to be used only when non-toxic alternatives have
failed.) Instead, LGPC has continued to press for a permit
to use pesticides.
The LGPC has
argued that chemical pesticides (in this case, a fluridone-based
product called Sonar) are less expensive than non-toxic
controls. They require less labor and less planning.
On the other
hand, they can kill much more than exotic milfoil.
There are 48
plants native to Lake George. Despite claims from the consultant
that Sonar is safe, the applicant's environmental impact
statement admits that they have no data on what will happen
to 32 of those 48 species when Sonar is applied.
There are at
least six plants native to Lake George that are scarce enough
to be protected under the state's "rare, threatened
and endangered" plants law. The applicant's environmental
impact statement provided no data on what the pesticide
will do to at least five of them. Three of those five species
are present in one or all of the proposed application areas
in the lake. The applicant wants the APAÕs permission to
kill them all.
At an April meeting,
the applicant's consultant declared: "If it's a choice
between killing milfoil and saving native species, we'll
choose killing milfoil." The consultant recommended
using more than 2,000 pounds of the chemical at four sites
in Lake George.
Taking a broader
view, the Council is concerned about the precedent of allowing
chemical herbicides in any of the Parks' 2,800 lakes and
ponds.
Caption under
photo: Lake George's south basin in July. The APA wants
more information before making a decision on using pesticides
to control Eurasian milfoil. Photo by John F. Sheehan.
