Herbicide Test Could Impact Adirondack Landowners
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Test Could Impact Adirondack Landowners
Date:
Mon, 9 Dec 2002 07:36:09 -0500
From:
Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization: Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)
To: Paul Helliker <phelliker@cdpr.ca.gov>
Director, State of California, Department of Pesticide
Regulation
cc: Christine Whitman whitman.christine@epa.gov
Herbicide Test Could Impact Adirondack Landowners
BOLTON LANDING, New York, December 6, 2002 (ENS) - The Adirondack Council has sent a letter to every shoreline landowner and resident overlooking two bays in Lake George, warning that the state plans to test a chemical herbicide near their homes. The groups say the state has not "adequately checked" to see whether the affected residents draw water from the lake for drinking and other uses.
The Adirondack Park Agency is expected to make a decision as early as December 13 on a permit application for a controversial use of a chemical herbicide in Lake George. The Lake George Park Commission, the permit applicant, wants to pour fluridone into four bays on Lake George to determine whether it could be used to help control invasive, non-native Eurasian water milfoil.
"The Lake George Park Commission has an obligation to prevent people from accidentally drinking this chemical herbicide, or using it on their lawns or gardens," said Adirondack Council executive director Brian Houseal. "It is illegal to apply this chemical within a quarter mile of anyone's water intake in the concentrations proposed by the state through the Lake George Park Commission."
"Lake George is one of the few large lakes left in America that is still pure enough to drink. A lot of people along the shoreline of Lake George, both homeowners and businesses, still use lake water in their homes and on their lawns and gardens," Houseal added. "There is a need to effectively alert those residents within a quarter mile of the areas to be treated with this chemical. So far, we can't be sure this was done."
The Adirondack Council believes the Lake George Park Commission did an inadequate job of checking to see who was still using lake water in Sawmill Bay and Moonlight Bay - the two test sites with private lands adjacent to them. A four page letter sent by the commission in March 2001 asked residents to contact the agency if they opposed the herbicide test, but did not inquire whether residents still used lake water.
Houseal said that every attempt the Council made since March of 2001 to determine whether intakes still existed was met with resistance or silence.
"First, we asked the park commission to issue another letter, directly asking whether anyone was still drawing water from the lake," Houseal said. "The park commission refused. They said a municipal water system serves that area, and they assumed everyone has switched from lake water to piped water."
When the group visited the local water department to ask for a map of the system, "we were told the maps were missing," said Houseal. A Freedom of Information Act request filed with the state Department of Health to determine whether it knew where the water intakes were has not yet been answered, he added.
"The only conclusion we can draw from these experiences is that no one but the individual landowners really knows where the water intakes are," Houseal said. "That's why we are sending out these letters."
The letters request that anyone with a water intake on Sawmill Bay or Moonlight Bay contact the park commission, the Adirondack Park Agency and the state health department. Each address is listed on an enclosure, sent with the letter.
"It's really disappointing that we have to do this," Houseal said. "We thought the people who were pushing to get the permit for herbicide use would be more conscientious toward the potential impact on their neighbors."
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