http://www2.townonline.com/wellesley/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=277909
The Wellesley Townsman (Massachusetts)
June 30, 2005
NRC says no to controversial herbicide
By Michael Cox/ Townsman Staff
By a vote of 4-1 and following three public hearings on the
matter, Wellelsey's Natural Resource Committee has said no to
the use of the controversial herbicide fluridone to cure the
ailing Morses Pond.
The decision, made June 16, comes as town officials grapple
with how best to solve weed overgrowth that is strangling the
popular body of water, which residents use for swimming, boating
and, most importantly, their drinking water.
NRC vice-chairman Heidi Gross, who voted
against the herbicide, said the decision was an easy one because
it is consistent with the Integrated Pest Management Policy
the NRC, School Committee and Board of Health passed two years
ago. That policy prohibits the use of herbicides and pesticides
on public land or public water supplies, unless there is a direct
danger to human health or environmental health, and where no
other viable alternatives exist.
"This is not a solution that is acceptable to the
policy," said Gross, who cited an outbreak of the West
Nile virus as an instance in which the use of a pesticide would
be acceptable. "These weeds in the pond are not a detriment
to human health."
In addressing environmental health, Janet Bowser, director
of Natural Resources Commission, said the use of a pesticide
would be permissible, for example, in an instance where pests
are threatening all the maple tress in town.
Bowser, who is not a voting NRC member, said that given all
she knows about fluridone, and having been involved in writing
the town's pest-management policy, she is opposed to using fluridone
in the pond.
Ken Wagner, an environmental consultant working for the town
suggested the use of fluridone as one of several potential remedies
for Wellesley to consider in an attempt to get control over
the rooted plants and algae infesting the pond. During a public
meeting, he said that the herbicide was not a carcinogen and
pointed out that the federal government has approved it for
use in drinking water at twice the level he would be proposing
to use it. In Morse's Pond, fluridone would be applied at eight
parts per billion, or roughly a drop for the size of a swimming
pool, he said.
Town officials attribute the weed and algae overgrowth in
Morse's Pond to road salt, gasoline, upstream septic systems,
pesticides and fertilizers that drain into the watershed. Town
officials considered the fluridone option because they viewed
it as a more cost-effective solution compared with the other
proposals.
Yet, Gross and others were still uncomfortable with its application.
The herbicide had also drawn opposition
from the Wellesley Cancer Prevention Project and the town's
Department of Public Health. NRC member Peter DeNatale
was the lone vote in favor of fluridone's use.
"These other alternatives are more expensive, but
they are not experimental and they do not impact on human health,"
said Gross, who noted that fluridone is only a decade old and
she felt not enough information about it exists.
Gross said the NRC will now focus its attention on dredging
and harvesting as options, even though it is believed that the
cost for these alternatives could soar well beyond $5 million.
Still, Gross is elated with the committee's vote.
"I don't want to look back
10 years from on a decision that I was part of and find out
some person in Wellesley is having an adverse effect because
of it," she said.