Plans Progressing For Taunton Lake Weed Control

By Andrew Gorosko

The state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has issued a permit to allow herbicide to be placed in Taunton Lake to combat an infestation of invasive aquatic weeds there.

George Benson, the town land use enforcement officer who also is an aquatic biologist, said July 18 the DEP’s pesticides unit issued the permit to Aquatic Control Technology, Inc, of Sutton, Mass., on behalf of the Newtown Fish and Game Club, Inc to apply a weed killer known as Renovate 3 (triclopyr) to the lake to control the presence of milfoil in the water.

The troublesome weed, which also is known as water milfoil and Eurasian aquatic milfoil, has infested many lakes throughout North America. In this area, there are sizable milfoil infestations in Lake Zoar, Lake Lillinonah, and Candlewood Lake.

Recent water testing showed that the 127-acre spring-fed Taunton Lake, which is ringed with private properties, contains milfoil. An area of about four acres in the southeastern section of the lake exhibits a growth of the invasive weed. The section of the lake with the weed problem is near the lake pumphouse, which lies about 800 feet northwest of the intersection of Taunton Lake Road and Castle Hill Road.

Representatives of Aquatic Control Technology are scheduled to inspect the lake next week to gauge the nature and extent of the milfoil problem, Mr Benson said. The firm would discuss the potential application of the weed killer in the lake with interested persons, he said.

Kavita Kapur Macleod, an environmental consultant in Washington, D.C., whose parents are Newtown residents who live in the vicinity of Taunton Lake, said this week that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has conducted a risk assessment on the active ingredient in Renovate 3, which is known as triclopyr. That information is available on the Internet at www.epa.gov/REDs/2710red.pdf.

Information on Renovate 3, which is published by the weed killer’s manufacturer, is available on the Internet at www.sepro.com/documents/Renovate_Label.pdf.

Gerald Smith, the owner of Aquatic Control Technology who is an aquatic biologist, said herbicides are used in lakes in seeking to eradicate, or at least control, weed growth. The herbicide that would be used at Taunton Lake does not readily move through groundwater, he said, adding that the EPA has done much research on the effects of the herbicide.

Mr Smith said his firm has performed weed control on hundred of lakes and ponds in New England.

The placement of herbicide in the lake is subject to review by the town’s Inland Wetlands Commission.

Besides the use of herbicide to control the milfoil, divers would enter the lake in the fall or next spring to remove isolated areas of milfoil by hand, Mr Benson said.

The discovery of milfoil at Taunton Lake will require regular lake inspections to check for the weed’s presence and extent, he said.

Mr Benson said that residents living near the lake will be kept informed on the status of the milfoil control project via e-mail messages. Those messages would contain cautionary information about the herbicide’s use in the lake.

The use of the herbicide in the lake would not cause any fish kills, he said.

The presence of milfoil is a common problem in lakes and ponds where there are public boat launches. Taunton Lake does not have a public boat launch, but the Newtown Fish & Game Club has a private boat launch on the northwest side of the lake.

Mr Benson theorizes that the milfoil spread to Taunton Lake within the past few years. The weed was most likely transported to Taunton Lake when milfoil fragments arrived there on the hull of a boat that had been in another lake that had a milfoil infestation.

The milfoil now observed in Taunton Lake is in areas with water depths of three to four feet. If left unchecked, the invasive plant could easily spread. The plant growth can become very dense, damaging the ecosystem of a lake.

The lake’s average depth is 20 feet, with the deepest areas at 30 feet. Visibility, or light penetration, within the lake is about eight feet, meaning that if left unchecked, the photosensitive milfoil could spread to areas in the lake with water depths of up to eight feet.

The lake has an 850-acre watershed. Taunton Lake feeds Pond Brook, which carries water to Lake Lillinonah.