CLP member lobbies to have herbicides in Mayville area
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MAYVILLE - A lake organization is calling on village leaders to allow chemicals to be used in Chautauqua Lake on their borders in the fight against weeds.
During the Mayville Village Board meeting, Jackie Damore with the Chautauqua Lake Partnership was in attendance and advocated for herbicides.
Damore lives in Burtis Bay and noted how 2023 was a very good year in terms of controlling the weeds. "The water clarity was excellent. You could see the weeds, you could see the fish. It was a different year," she said.
Damore admits they don't know why 2023 was better than previous years. "Some attribute it to the use of herbicides. I would say that's not conclusive at this point. Some are saying it's the weevils, some are saying it's global warming or the weather that we had last year with the early breakup of ice. Who knows, but probably a lot of those things worked together to get us the season that we had last year," she said.
Damore said the CLP believes in the use of selective herbicides. "We're not advocating to eradicate all the weeds but looking for some kind of a balance - looking for less weeds than what we see in a bad year," she said.
Damore said in a bad year the Chautauqua Lake Association will harvest 13 million to 14 million pounds of wet weeds out of the lake, which maxes them out. "We all know they can't do enough to get enough weeds out of the lake to make us all happy," she said.
She said the CLP is in favor of harvesting, adding that studies have shown that harvesting does help reduce Harmful Algal Blooms. However, the CLP doesn't believe that weeds that are killed through herbicides create HABs. "A weed that grows in the lake and dies in the same spot doesn't have any impact on the overall phosphate loading," she said.
Damore said the state Environmental Protection Agency won't allow for a lot of herbicides. In 2021, the CLP requested 600 acres of milfoil treatment, but was only approved for 80 acres. In 2022, the CLP was approved for 300 acres and 100 acres in 2023. "We're not talking about the whole lake. We're talking about specific problem areas," she said.
Damore said the CLP is proposing to do a trial herbicide treatment in Chautauqua Lake off the Mayville shores of about 30 acres. She said the herbicide they want to use is not intended to impact native weeds. "With the low dosage there's no use restrictions, so there's no restrictions for recreation - swimming, fishing - anything like that," she said.
According to Damore, the studies have shown no impact to aquatic animals and almost no impact to aquatic native plants. "It's short lived. It breaks down in three to four days, so it kind of disappears out of the system and it’s in the lowest risk category for concerns to human health. The EPA says that the drinking water exposures do not impose a human health risk," she said.
She also said that this herbicide will be good for three years.
If Mayville wants the treatment this year, Damore said they need to let the CLP know by mid to late March, in order to meet the state's application deadline.
Trustee Bill Ward asked if the Chautauqua Lake and Watershed Management Alliance was in support and/or the Jefferson Project.
Damore said the Alliance is in support, however not the Jefferson Project, because that program strictly focuses on HABs, not nuisance weeds.
At the end of the meeting, residents asked Mayor Rick Syper if Mayville will permit herbicides. He remained non-committal. "If the village board wants to address it, if they bring it up, we'll talk about it. It's not on any future plans right at the moment," he said.
Syper said if the public comes to village officials about weed problems in Mayville, they will take their concerns into consideration. He added, "No one has ever come to this village board to say there's a weed problem."
One of the reasons Syper said they're not fully in support of herbicides is because there are two water districts in the town of Chautauqua - one of which is Chautauqua Institution - that draws water from the lake for consumption.
One member of the audience, who lives out of the area but has a summer home in Mayville, complained about the weed problem. He said sometimes the cut weeds pile up on his dock and he can't use his boat or even allow children to go swimming.
Chautauqua Town Councilman Tom Carlson, who was in attendance at the meeting, encouraged anyone who lives in the local area to come to the town board meeting and express their concerns there, since they're more involved with harvesting weeds.