Adirondack lakes’ fight against fast-spreading milfoil puts spotlight on herbicide strategies, APA regulations, and the importance of post-treatment care.
By Gwendolyn Craig
More lake associations across the Adirondack Park are seeking an herbicide to combat a fast-growing invasive weed, and it’s causing some Adirondack Park Agency board members to hesitate.
The APA board approved its sixth application for Procellacor EC to treat invasive Eurasian watermilfoil on Thursday, this time for Horseshoe Pond in the town of Duane. Two more permit applications are to come before the board soon, said David Plante, deputy director of regulatory programs. The first lake the APA permitted for such herbicide use was in 2020 on Minerva Lake in Essex County.
APA board members Kenneth Lynch, Zoe Smith and Bradley Austin suggested a need to create standards feasible for lake associations that include management plans and monitoring after the herbicide is applied.
“I want to make sure it’s clear that we are concerned about just jumping to chemical treatment,” Lynch said. Lake associations need to know the APA wants post-treatment, such as hand-harvesting, boater education and boat washing after the herbicide is used, he said.
Horseshoe Pond/Deer River Flow Association is not required to provide a post-treatment report or to perform other management efforts after the herbicide is applied, according to terms of the association’s APA permit.
“It seems like our responsibility to ask for that,” Smith said.
Aaron Ziemann, a project analyst at the APA, said monitoring is key, but he called it an “ongoing discussion” about the agency’s involvement in requiring it.
Sarah Reynolds, associate counsel for the APA, said the agency doesn’t “want to include conditions that can’t be enforced or shouldn’t be enforced.” In the Horseshoe Pond instance, Ziemann and Reynolds alluded, funding for a post-treatment plan could be an issue.
The APA’s regulatory programs committee plans to examine the issue over the next few months, said APA board member Dan Wilt.
Jerry Delaney, executive director of the Adirondack Park Local Government Review Board, said the APA should look back at how Minerva Lake’s herbicide treatments went since application four years ago.
“That would help inform the agency,” Delaney said. “This is obviously a high-profile question in areas of the park, and we have to preserve the ecology of these lakes and ponds. We can’t just let them disappear into a mat of milfoil, but how do you show you’re doing your due diligence?”
While many lake associations are eager to use the herbicide, the Lake George Association has litigated against it over concerns about its use on the drinking water source. The Lake George Park Commission continues to seek APA permission to use Procellacor. A lawsuit is moving through the court system.
Top photo: Invasive Eurasian watermilfoil seen in Horseshoe Pond in the town of Duane. Photo courtesy of an Adirondack Park Agency presentation
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