The Adirondack Council

News Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, Tuesday, June 11, 2002

BOLTON LANDING, NY -- Data and testimony presented by the applicant’s own experts shows that Eurasian milfoil is disappearing, rapidly and on its own, from three of the four sites where the Lake George Park Commission wants state permission to use a chemical herbicide to kill it.

"Why in the world are we even thinking about using a chemical pesticide on weed beds that are disappearing without any hand-harvesting or other controls whatsoever?" said Adirondack Council Acting Executive Director Bernard C. Melewski. "These places haven’t been touched in over six years. The public was told that this demonstration project was needed because milfoil never goes away and because it will eventually choke out important, native plants. Now, it appears that those statements were simply guesses, or worse.

"Why are we planning to spend a quarter of a million dollars in public funds on chemicals to solve a problem, when nature appears to be solving on its own?" Melewski asked. "Why are we wasting the time of state agencies and four other parties to this hearing? Why does the LGPC need to increase boat and dock fees by 50 percent to pay for this project and future chemical treatments? It all seems like such overkill."

"The fact remains that milfoil is not spreading rapidly through the lake," Melewski said. "In places where the LGPC has been using non-toxic methods to harvest and control the growth with mats, the number of known milfoil sites fell from more than 140 to fewer than 30. In a number of places where there has been no treatment at all, milfoil is going away on its own. And the LGPC can’t explain why.

"At one proposed site, West Tongue Mountain, there does not appear to be any dispute over the fact that nearly 100 percent of the milfoil beds have disappeared through natural causes over the past three years. A second site, Paradise Bay, has dropped in average milfoil cover in the same three year period from 32.5 percent to 5.5 percent. The data being gathered also shows that the diversity of non-milfoil, native species rose rapidly in those same areas.

The LGPC needs a permit from the Adirondack Park Agency and Department of Environmental Conservation before it can use a chemical herbicide (fluridone, brand name Sonar) to kill the non-native plants. The hearings underway here are being conducted by the APA. The hearings are set to resume on June 21.

According to the Lake George Park Commission’s environmental impact statement, Eurasian milfoil has been living in Lake George since 1985. The data and LGPC’s consultant also state that, in every other lake where milfoil was discovered, it spread throughout all of its available habitat within five years. In Lake George, milfoil has been found in less than 3 percent of the lake bottom.

"Lake George is an extremely unique water body with some of the purest water found in any large lake in the United States," Melewski said. "We had better think long and hard about altering that ecosystem with chemical herbicides. Every one of the four sites chosen for the herbicide experiment contains rare plant species that are protected by law. We aren’t sure, and neither is the LGPC, what role those plants play in keeping the water pure."

Melewski noted that while "Sonar" has been used in lakes outside the Adirondack Park since 1995, it has never been approved for use inside the Park.

"The oddest thing about all of this is that DEC’s regulations for applying this chemical outside the Park prohibit its use where there are rare, state-protected plants present," Melewski said. "If the chemical is too dangerous to use around protected plants outside the state’s most important Park, it makes no sense to turn around and allow Sonar to be used on protected species inside the Park. Additionally, official DEC policy governing the use of sonar prohibits its introduction into waters bordered by undeveloped shorelines. Three of the four sites proposed for sonar use in Lake George are undeveloped shorelines. "Why isn’t DEC talking to the APA, the LGPC and other interested organizations about these restrictions and prohibitions," Melewski asked.

"Then again," Melewski added. "DEC has refused to participate at these hearings so far without any explanation." We may find that DEC won’t allow an exception to the regulations regarding protected plants. But it looks like we won’t find out until the APA’s hearings are concluded.

"The important thing is to get this right," Melewski said. " All four of the proposed treatment sites have been classified with the highest value rating established under New York’s Freshwater Wetlands Act. The precedent of introducing a toxic herbicide to those types of wetlands will have far-reaching effects in the Adirondack Park for decades. If there is some scientific justification for an experimental treatment in Lake George, we are willing to entertain the idea. But we are not impressed with what has been presented so far.

"There are nearly three thousand lakes and ponds in the Adirondacks," he concluded. "If we don’t require the most rigorous environmental safety standards possible when reviewing the Lake George case, then who knows what will happen when the next 50 applications come in.

The Adirondack Council is an 18,000 member, privately funded, not-for-profit organization dedicated to protecting and enhancing the natural character and human communities of the Adirondack Park through research, education, advocacy and legal action.