AMESBURY — The leader of an advocacy group for Lake Attitash says a proposal to create a control program for invasive weeds and species in lakes and ponds sounds good at first blush. But he is skeptical that any water areas not owned by the state would benefit from the bill.
"My optimistic view is that it would provide for grant opportunities for all lakes so that at Lake Attitash, we might have the opportunity to put a boat-washing station and fund boat-monitoring programs," said Tod Campbell, president of the Lake Attitash Association. "But my pessimistic view, based on limited funding in the state, (is) this program seems to read that it will be centered on (Department of Conservation and Recreation) lakes."
The proposed bill sets stricter standards for DCR to prevent local waters from being contaminated by "aquatic nuisances."
Lake Attitash advocates have been working to battle their own aquatic nuisances: a bacteria known as blue-green algae and an invasive weed known as milfoil.
The story on how the milfoil found its way to Lake Attitash is the same for most bodies of water that fall victim to invasive species. A bit of milfoil was on a boat or piece of fishing equipment that later went into the lake and spread.
The Lake Attitash Association is raising $90,000 to combat the bacteria and milfoil. The plan calls for the application of a herbicide called Sonor (fluridone), which has been approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection for use in drinking water supplies and near wellheads.
The proposed bill, S 1904, is sponsored by Sen. Benjamin Downing, a Democrat from Pittsfield, and passed the Senate in July.
The bill empowers environmental police to enforce boat decontamination procedures and enables them to levy civil fines on boaters who do not comply. The fines would range from $25 to $100 for the first offense, $100 for a second offense and up to $1,000 for a third offense.
Along with stronger enforcement abilities, the bill also creates an aquatic nuisance control program within DCR to work with local communities and environmental groups to respond to infestation complaints and also establishes programs to combat problems. It allows environmental agencies to partner with state, federal and private entities to study, quarantine and eliminate aquatic nuisances.
In the past few years, some Massachusetts lakes have become infested by species that are not indigenous to Bay State waters. The problem is particularly pronounced in the western part of the state where zebra mussels — an invasive species that causes ecological damage to lakes, rivers, ponds and reservoirs — infested Laurel Lake in Berkshire County. Zebra mussels were never seen in Massachusetts prior to 2009.
Zebra mussels cause ecological damage to the lakes and ponds they infest by feeding on lower-level organisms, which make up the initial food chain that fish and other aquatic animals use to survive.
"Eventually, they clear all the food out of a lake, and everything else will die," said Jack Hickey, president of the Lakes and Ponds Association of western Massachusetts, who has been advocating for legislation to enforce regulations for the past few years.
Zebra mussels also make swimming in infested waters dangerous and undesirable because their shells are very sharp, cutting people as they swim, Hickey said.
State environmental officials believe zebra mussels and other damaging aquatic species are brought in from neighboring states when boaters do not properly clean and decontaminate their vessels before putting them into Massachusetts waters. To curb the contamination at Lake Laurel, DCR set up a new boat-washing station. The zebra mussels can be microscopic and only removed by very hot water, environmental officials said.
At Lake Attitash, the association started a boat-monitoring station last summer, but the group needs volunteers to man the station, which has been difficult to achieve.
Last summer, DCR spent approximately $100,000 on education efforts to warn boaters about contamination dangers.
One of the challenges environmental officials face is making boaters who use private docks aware of the problem, since people who transfer the invasive creatures from one lake to another do it unwittingly, they said.
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