On Wednesday the firm SOLitude Lake Management began treating DEC-designated areas of the lake with the chemicals Aquathol K and Navigate, which are intended to kill lake vegetation.

The firm is hired by Chautauqua Lake Partnership along with the participating municipalities, including the villages of Celoron and Lakewood and the towns of Ellicott, North Harmony and Ellery.

About 400 acres is being treated. The application of the chemicals began Wednesday morning and will continue through the day Friday, weather permitting.

The CLP has said that herbicide treatments are meant as a last resort to manage invasive weed species Eurasian milfoil and curly-leaf pondweed.

Despite concerns from some county residents and other lake groups regarding the negative health and environmental impact the herbicides may have on people, wildlife and the environment, the state DEC moved forward at the start of this month to grant permission for the herbicides to be used.

Residents are advised not to swim during the treatments and 24 hours after they finish. In addition, Lake water should not be used for irrigation until 21 days after treatment is completed.

A map highlighting the areas of Chautauqua Lake authorized for herbicide treatment beginning May 15, 2019 and continuing until no later than May 22, 2019.

LAKEWOOD – The organization involved with overseeing the herbicide applications on Chautauqua Lake has offered more details on when the process will take place and what residents and visitors should know when it comes to safety measures.

The Chautauqua Lake Partnership says that SOLitude Lake Management will begin applying herbicides Aquathol K (endothall) and Navigate (2,4-D) in lake waters starting next Wednesday, May 15 from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Applications may take three to six days to complete and must be finished by May 22 according to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

Areas expected to be treated include those in the Town of Ellicott including the village of Celoron, in the village of Lakewood, the Town of North Harmony, and the Town of Ellery.

The time frames for restrictions on water use start as soon as the treatment has been completed. Information on water use restrictions, including when those restrictions are lifted, will be posted on the website of each Town that undertakes the application of herbicides. In addition, signs will be posted around the Lake and along downstream waters notifying users of the water use restrictions. When the swimming/bathing, irrigation, and potable use water restrictions are lifted, posted signs will be removed. After the treatment is completed, information on the status of the restrictions may be obtained on each applicable Town or Village’s website or by contacting the Town or Village Clerks.

Warning signs containing the following restrictions will be posted around the Lake and at public access points along downstream waters on or before the affected areas on the day(s) of treatment and shall remain posted as long as the restrictions are in place:

• Swimming: During Treatment and 24 hours after
• Irrigation: 21 days or < 100 ppb of 2,4-D
• Domestic Water use: < 50 ppb
• Potable Water Use: < 50 ppb
• Other Use Restrictions: None

The permits and a map of the application sites and affected areas are available at the respective Town and Village Halls and may be viewed during each’s normal business hours. Office staff will assist you in answering your questions regarding the treatments.

For all technical questions regarding the herbicides and treatment plan, please contact Glenn Sullivan, 1-908-310-8775 at SOLitude Lake Management during business hours.

The Herbicide product labels are available at https://www.solitudelakemanagement.com/product-labels-new-york-2018

The herbicide treatment comes after the state DEC announced its approval of herbicide use last week.

In a statement, the DEC said it has issued permits to five municipalities authorizing herbicide treatment in 245.3 acres of the lake. There will be no applications north of Long Point, along undeveloped shoreline, or in areas containing critical fish spawning and nursery areas. In addition, areas treated in 2018 will not be treated this year because DEC typically does not authorize herbicide treatment in the same location two years in a row.  DEC issued a letter on May 6, 2019 clarifying several items, including noting that chemical amounts listed in the permit are approximate and explaining that Burtis Bay will be treated in thirds with the first treatment planned for this year. The remaining two thirds will be treated in subsequent years, one third at a time.  Additionally, DEC is in the process of issuing revised permits today which change allowable treatment zones within Lakewood and Ellicott and widens the navigation channel in Ellicott to 60 feet.

The actual amount of lake area that will be treated in the authorized areas will depend on each individual municipality and large based on available funding to cover the cost of treatment.

All municipalities will now be able to approve the maximum amount of their specific permitted areas for herbicides Navigate and Aquathol K to be used to treat Chautauqua Lake waters. Herbicide permits have been sent to the village of Lakewood, village of Celoron, town of Ellicott, town of North Harmony and town of Ellery.

DEC officials say There will be no applications north of Long Point, along undeveloped shoreline or in areas containing critical fish spawning and nursery areas. In addition, areas treated in 2018 will not be treated this year because DEC typically does not authorize herbicide treatment in the same location two years in a row.

Whether the maximum acreage receives herbicide treatments is dependent on how five municipal boards vote during upcoming special meetings this month.

The Chautauqua Lake Association (CLA) says it has filed objections to a permit applications that would allow for the application of two powerful herbicides to 1,200 acres of Chautauqua Lake this coming summer.

The CLA is the organization that helps manage weeds on the lake by operating a number of harvesters to remove weeds throughout the summer season.

The herbicide application has been filed with the State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) by local municipalities on behalf of the Chautauqua Lake Partnership (CLP) – which also pushed for the use of herbicides in 2018 in an effort to combat nuisance weeds and vegitation in the lower basin of the lake. The towns of Busti, Ellery, Ellicott, and North Harmony and the villages of Celoron and Lakewood have signed onto the application.

The 10 objections (printed below) from the CLA range from failure to notify all effected shoreline property owners, to the lack of scientific understanding of lake currents that could spread the chemical herbicides well beyond the areas being targeted for herbicide use. Because the permit calls for the use of both the chemicals Aquathol K and Navigate, the CLA also argues the effective coverage area is actually 2,400 acres under the current permitting request.

“The CLA sent this letter to the DEC because it views the lake as a whole, and these flawed applications would introduce, with inadequate safeguards, potent chemicals throughout the lake,” said CLA Executive Director Douglas Conroe. “This is improper and DEC officials know that. The CLA does not oppose effective and selective herbicide application, but this helter-skelter approach could cause enormous environmental damage.”

• RELATED: WRFA Discusses Lake Management with CLA’s Doug Conroe (January 2019)

The action by the CLA comes less than a week after Borrello delivered his state of the county address and included a call for collaboration and consensus when it comes to the different stakeholders involved with managing Chautauqua Lake. Borrello said it was time for a “cease fire” between some of the groups and also said he would ask them all to sign a memo of understanding in regards to lake management and that any group that wouldn’t sign the memo could miss out on funding that earmarked for addressing lake issues.

There’s no word on when the State DEC will act on the herbicide application request, but it will likely come before June.

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The 10 objections cited by the CLA to the DEC are:

1. Inappropriate herbicide use endangers fish, animals, birds, insects and plants. In February, 10 entities, including the CLA, confirmed their continuing consensus regarding the management of Chautauqua Lake, including plant management. Their Conservation Statement for Chautauqua Lake specifically addressed using herbicides by stating: “Herbicide use can be suitable when it fits within an invasive-species management plan, and when other methods of nuisance plant control are not workable.”

The statement further notes that short-term solutions must not endanger fish, birds, amphibians, animals and insects that rely on the lake, nor should they pose a risk to human use of the lake. The permit applications, as submitted, conflict with the conservation statement’s consensus that the long-term, deeply experienced lake-related entities formed.

The applications also do not fit within any invasive species or lake management plan ever written. And, the applications fail within the DEC’s own Division of Fish, Wildlife and Marine Resources Bureau of Habitat Technical Memorandum of March 17, 2016, titled Recommendations Regarding the Use of Aquatic Herbicide In Fish-Bearing Waters of the State, guidance specifically regarding the utilization of herbicides in invasive species colonized lakes.

Further, it has been clearly demonstrated that when fully implemented aquatic plant harvesting can work to control nuisance plant growth in Chautauqua Lake – without resorting to herbicides. Given the CLA’s existing fleet of harvesters, an alternative method to herbicide treatment is available.

2. Affected property owners were not appropriately notified. The notifications mailing list is incomplete, in that not all lakefront property owners situated within the herbicide quarantine area were sent a notification in advance of the 2018 herbicide use, nor were notifications sent to other lake-use-rights property owners who are not immediate lakefront owners. The notification process for this year is thus flawed again and needs to be corrected by the applicants.

3. Failure to comply with county plans. Again this year, the proposed treatments fail to comply with the Chautauqua County 2017 Macrophyte Management Strategy guidance document in regard to (a) treatment locations; (b) treatment timing; (c) use of specifically not-recommended 2,4-D. Although some variance from the guidance document is tolerable, the variances are so egregious that issuance of the permits as requested is inappropriate.

4. Permit application defies DEC regulations. Regarding the utilization of 2,4-D, the DEC’s regulations limit such aquatic use to emergent plants, yet the 2019 herbicide-use permit applications propose use on submerged vegetation. Taking this into consideration, along with the county’s Macrophyte Management Strategy recommendations, the issuance of permits to utilize Navigate in Chautauqua Lake should be denied.

5. Proper testing was not performed in 2018. DEC policy requires use of Environmental Laboratory Approval Program-certified labs for analyzing water samples. ELAP was not followed last year and the 2019 applications do not state that ELAP will be utilized, and therefore the applications should be deemed incomplete. Region 9 must follow departmental rules. The necessary impact conclusions and quarantine-lifting decisions that are part of herbicide application cannot legitimately be made per department policy when non-certified labs are utilized.

6. “Need” for herbicide use based on flawed surveys. The applicants’ treatment-area decisions were apparently made based upon “rake-toss surveys” of the lake. Ample input was provided in 2018 as to the inappropriateness of the applicants’ rake-toss method and the flaws associated with it. Only the commonly accepted Cornell University Modified Army Corps Rake Toss Method data should be allowed for herbicide-based decision making. The applications should thus be deemed incomplete and the applicants should be required to submit other rationale as to how treatment areas were/are determined.

7. Conflict of interest on who applies the herbicide. Having an applicator that profits from the sale of the herbicides decide what quantity of chemicals are to be applied is a clear conflict of interest. This applicator, who profits from supplying and applying the chemicals, also determines quality-control parameters, then profits from the quality-control implementation. The applicator also profits from a favorable quality-assurance outcome, which it alone determines. These are all untenable factors and constitute conflict of interest. Permit conditions need to require that an independent third-party entity be retained by the applicants to perform QA/QC.

8. Bottom cover should be determined by third-party divers, not guesswork. The applications vary from standard policy without justification. We request that any permits continue to follow standard, proven-to-be-appropriate policy: Treatment only to occur within 200 feet from shore or out to 6 feet deep, whichever comes first, unless performed in a specific navigation channel; notification of all lake property owners and at all launch ramps along with required extensive public media announcements; and, treatment to only occur where 50 percent of bottom cover of target species exists. In this case, due to last year’s shortcomings, this should mean cover would be determined by third-party underwater divers or certified rake toss, as opposed to sight guessing that occurred in 2018.

9. Coverage area could reach 2,400 acres, without third-party, scientific evaluation of need or efficacy. Specific impact of the simultaneous introduction of Aquathol K and Navigate upon the ecology in Chautauqua Lake needs to be evaluated through a bona fide study, before introduction of the chemicals on the proposed scale occurs. The proposal to cover 1,200+ acres with both products equates to 2,400+ herbicide acres of treatment. Chautauqua Lake enjoys a diverse ecology, including 24 plant species. These benefit water clarity and absorb nutrients in support of the U.S. Clean Water Act’s Total Maximum Daily Load goals, while they also likely mitigate harmful algal blooms. The plants support a world-renown fishery, which the DEC lists as the No. 1 New York State Inland Fishing Lake and No. 4 overall Fishing Waterbody statewide. Therefore, care must be taken to safeguard these crucial assets. Further dual herbicide treatment must not be permitted until local impacts are better known.

10. Lake current patterns – which could disperse the chemicals over a much wider area – are unknown. Chautauqua Lake has no immediate water-flow pattern data. Given the observed 2018 drift impact, specific chemical drift studies need to be undertaken throughout Chautauqua Lake before any permit for herbicide treatment is issued. After a 2018 herbicide application, the applicants’ own test results documented the presence of *triclopyr miles downstream in the Conewango River in the Town of Carroll

Should any Town undertake the application of herbicides consistent with the permit granted by the NYSDEC, the application of treatment will take place June 11 and 12, 2018 between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m..  Notification of the application of the treatment will be posted at public access points on or before the day(s) of the application.

The timeframes for restrictions on water use start as soon as the treatment has been completed. Information on water use restrictions, including when those restrictions are lifted, will be posted on the website of each Town that undertakes the application of herbicides.  In addition, signs will be posted around the Lake and along downstream waters notifying users of the water use restrictions. When the swimming/bathing, fishing, animal consumption, and potable use water restrictions are lifted, posted signs will be modified to reflect that only the irrigation restriction remains in place.  After the treatment is completed, information on the status of the irrigation restriction may be obtained on each applicable Town’s website or by contacting the Town Clerks at the numbers below.

Warning signs containing the following restrictions will be posted around the Lake and at public access points along downstream waters on or before the affected areas on the day(s) of treatment and shall remain posted as long as the restrictions are in place:

Swimming:                              During Treatment and 24 hours after
Irrigation:                                120 days or < 1 ppb of triclopyr
Domestic Water use:               <50 ppb
Potable Water Use:                 <50 ppb
Livestock Watering:                24 hours
Animal Consumption:             During treatment and 24 hours after
Fishing:                                   During Treatment and 24 hours after
Other Use Restrictions:           None

The permits and a map of the application sites and affected areas are available at the respective Town Halls and may be viewed during each Town’s normal business hours.  Office staff will assist you in answering your questions regarding the treatments.  For all technical questions regarding the herbicides and treatment plan, please contact Brad Bowers, 1-888-480-5253, or Glenn Sullivan, 1-908-310-8775 at SOLitude Lake Management during business hours.

The Herbicide product labels are available at https://www.solitudelakemanagement.com/product-labels-new-york-2017.

That was the result of Wednesday night’s Chautauqua County Legislature meeting in Mayville, where lawmakers amended a resolution allocating $100,000 for the Chautauqua Lake and Watershed Management Alliance, adding language that prohibits any of the money from being used for the purchase or application of herbicides in the lake.

The decision came after a dozen different people addressed the legislature to speak out against the use of Herbicides on the lake. The concerns were brought up after a small portion of Bemus Bay was treated with the herbicides Aquathol K and Navigate (also known 24D) at the end of June by the Chautauqua Lake Partnership, a member of the alliance which had received permission from the state DEC to move forward with herbicide treatment to combat the large amount of weeds in that area of the lake.

Among those who spoke was Maple Springs resident and retired teacher Jane Conroe, who said no other herbicide use should take place until the impact of the recent herbicide application is fully known.

“This is a science experiment in progress,” Conroe said. “24D is not going anywhere for about three years. It is in the sediment of Bemus Bay. It’s half-life is 186 days and the plants continue to adsorb the 24D for as long as its there in the sentiment. So about three years from now, there’s still going to be a quarter of a ton of 24D in the sediment of Bemus Bay.”

Chautauqua Institution resident John Dilly also voiced concern, saying that he was puzzled that the state gave permission to use the Navigate herbicide, despite it being banned elsewhere.

“Massachusetts did a similar study of 24D and recommended that it not be used in any pond or lake that fed a drinking water source,’ Dilly said. “Also, there’s multiple provinces in Canada that have banned 24D and multiple countries in Europe. So I don’t understand why if the local plan for the lake said don’t use this, how it still got to be used.”

Dilly was referring to the Chautauqua Lake Management Plan of 1990, which provided information on how to combat weeds in the lake, and also stated that the herbicide 24D should not be used.

Chautauqua Institution gets its drinking water supply from the lake. Chautauqua Representative John Shedd urged the legislature that the Department of Environmental Conservation and local science committee hold a forum to sort out there opposing views on herbicide use, before any further application takes place.

“We are asking the legislature to advocate for the DEC to create a forum where the important points of disagreement are vetted with all interested parties at the table. We suggest that no further use of herbicides, or testing  be pursued until the disagreements are vetted and understood by all parties,” Shedd said.

Others who spoke out against the use included representatives of the Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy and the Conewango Creek Watershed Association, noting that the herbicide poses negative consequences for animals and plants not only in the application area, but also in other areas of the watershed.

Later in the meeting, the legislature considered a funding resolution for the alliance, to apply $100,000 of bed tax money to be used for various projects and other expenses that may come up from the alliance and its members. Prior to voting on the resolution, legislator Mark O’Dell (R-Portland) offered an amendment that stated the money could not be used for the purchase or application of herbicides on Chautauqua Lake.

Legislator George Borrello (R-Irving), who’s also running for County Executive, reminded the legislator that even with such an amendment in place, herbicides could still be used on the lake.

“The alliance is not solely funded by this legislative body. they receive funds from other source,” Borrello Said. “There for us to restrict this money really doesn’t do anything, because at the end of the day they can say we didn’t use your money, we used the other money. I know this for a fact because I’ve had similar situations like there, where unless we 100 percent fund that body, there’s no way for to designate that they can not use herbicides. I bring this up because while this is certainly a nice gesture, it really does nothing.”

Legislator Paul Whitford (D-Jamestown) responded to Borrello’s comment, saying that the amendment would send a message to the residents and lake organizations.

“We need to send a clear message to the alliance that we do not approve of this, and I will be voting for this to send that message. It may not make a difference on what money they spend, as far has herbicides, but this legislature needs to let them understand that we stand with the populus here when it comes to the herbicide issue.”

Following discussion, the legislature approved the herbicide amendment by a vote of 17 to 0.

The final version of the funding resolution was approved 13 to 4, with some legislators concerned about giving money to the alliance without first knowing the specific purposes for its use.

Weeds can build up on Chautauqua Lake and create problems for boaters, such is the case shown in this image taken in 2011 of an unidentified area of the lake.

BEMUS POINT – A small portion of Chautauqua Lake will be treated with chemical herbicide starting today in an effort to fight an overabundance of weeds.

The Post-Journal is reporting the treatment will take place in areas of Bemus Bay after the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation gave its recent approval. The three zones that will be treated are located near the top of Lakeside Drive and the other closer to the village. A total of six zones had been requested by the Chautauqua Lake Partnership (CLP) in the initial application.

Earlier this year, a group of property owners engaged the Town of Ellery and Village of Bemus Point to submit a permit application to the DEC for a permit to use the herbicides Aquathol K (Endothall) and Navigate (2-4 D) on the submerged aquatic vegetation in Bemus Bay.

While CLP assisted with the application and supports the use of herbicide, other Chautauqua Lake-based organization are against it.

“Chautauqua Lake Association leadership has taken into account the many aspects of its experience and has reviewed the current environmental condition of the lake, especially Bemus Bay. As a result, the CLA leadership is not recommending a herbicide approach to managing submerged aquatic vegetation in Chautauqua Lake at this time,” the CLA stated on its website in a posting from April 2017.

And the Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy also stated on its website, “[The Conservancy] has empathy for the property owners whose use and enjoyment of the lake has been disrupted by dense patches of vegetation.. however, the CWC also has concerns about the permit application/use of herbicides in the lake – namely, that the application does not include an environmental impact statement, that the application does not demonstrate that the treatment will achieve the applicants’ intended outcome and that the application does not demonstrate the necessity to use herbicides in 2017 based upon plant cover (density) and percentage of non-native invasive species.”

The herbicide will be used to battle invasive weeds, such as Eurasian Milfoil.

The DEC has limited herbicide application to 200 feet from the shoreline and treated zones would reportedly be safe again for human use 24 hours after treatment.