Paul Stage, left, and Doug Conroe.

“I would be hard-pressed to find a reason why herbicides should be used in Chautauqua,” said Paul Stage, Chautauqua Lake Association president.

The figurative battle of preferred treatment methods for Chautauqua Lake’s weed issues rages on as the CLA requested the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to deny herbicide treatment in lake waters for 2019.

Stage said that under no current circumstances of the lake would he approve of any herbicide use. He said if weed species hydrilla was to invade Chautauqua Lake, he would consider herbicide applications then.

By listing several reasons for the group’s opposition to herbicide treatments, the CLA expressed their disagreement with how lakefront municipalities are applying for permits that would allow for the potential use of two herbicides — Aquathol K and Navigate — in an unspecified acreage of the lake.

The Chautauqua Lake Partnership is hoping for the herbicide treatment of approximately 1,200 acres of Chautauqua Lake this spring. It is likely that, if permits were to be approved and municipalities to vote in favor of treatments, that the actual permit acreage would be far less than 1,200 acres. Last year, the DEC issued permits for herbicide use on 191 acres of Chautauqua Lake; about 90 acres were treated following the town and village approval processes.

“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 Doug Conroe, CLA executive director. “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.”

Herbicide permit applications for this year are being considered by the DEC after the CLP helped the towns of North Harmony, Busti, Ellicott and Ellery and the villages of Lakewood and Celoron file the permits.

Just because permits are filed doesn’t mean these municipalities are committed to allowing herbicide usage.

Specifically, CLA board members take issue with:

¯ Inappropriate herbicide use potentially endangering fish, animals, birds, insects and plants;

¯ Affected property owners not having been appropriately notified due to an incomplete mailing list used for notifications of tretments in 2018;

¯ Failure to comply with county plans, including the Chautauqua County 2017 Macrophyte Management Strategy;

¯ Applications defying DEC regulations that state 2,4-D found in Navigate should not be used on submerged vegetation;

¯ Proper testing not having been performed in 2018;

¯ Using flawed surveys to determine “need” for herbicide use;

¯ Creating a conflict of interest on who applies herbicides by having an applicator that profits from the sale of the herbicides;

¯ Applications varying from standard policy as in treatments should only occur within 200 feet from shore or out to 6 feet deep, whichever comes first;

¯ Coverage area potentially amounting to 2,400 acres of herbicides used per acre due to the application of two herbicides in the same proposed areas;

¯ The unknown lake current patterns, which could disperse the chemicals over a much wider area.

The basis for a lawsuit against 2018 lead herbicide permit agency town of Ellery and the DEC was this last point and how the Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement allowing for herbicide treatments did not properly address that fear from the perspective of Chautauqua Institution.

Stage said there is a chance that herbicides could drift into Chautauqua Institution waters, thereby jeapordizing the community’s drinking water during the time of future herbicide applications.

“I think our board is past playing nice,” Stage said. “I think our board is taking a postion that we’re going to do what is right for the lake in our opinion.”

He emphasized the costs of herbicides, both environmentally and financially. He said that herbicides cost $5,000 per acre to apply whereas weed harvesting, which is what the CLA does to control weeds, costs about $300 per acre.

“They’re trying to stop the masses of weeds floating up the lake shore,” Stage said. “(Herbicdes) are not going to accomplish that. I think that the public would want the biggest bang for the buck. Herbicides is not the answer in that case.”

Stage reiterated that harvesting weeds will suffice in terms of getting rid of in-lake macrophytes. He said that Eurasian milfoil and curly-leaf pondweed are essentially indigenous species after having been introduced several decades ago.

The partial application of herbicides could be the sticking point that tanks a proposed memorandum of understanding being drawn up at Chautauqua County Executive George Borrello’s request. This consensus statement would help mobilize all lake groups to treat the lake with a cohesive, comprehensive vision.

Stage argued that the Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy already drew up such a statement: a consensus document that various stakeholders signed onto. CLP did not sign onto it as that organization continues to to push for herbicide use that some groups are lukewarm regarding or against them almost completely as with the CLA.

“I don’t know if consensus will be found this year,” Stage said.

CLP officials did not return comment regarding the CLA’s letter to the DEC by press time.

The CLA is not without its detractors either; tensions rose at Monday’s Busti Town Board meeting, during which CLA board member Bruce Erickson and Conroe asked for $20,000 in funding for the hiring of weed harvesters this summer. The amount asked for was at least $10,000 higher than donated by the board in recent years.

Conroe expressed his displeasure with Busti Town Board Member Ken Lawton, who joined in on the unanimous vote to designate the town of Ellery as the lead agency for herbicide applications, because he hadn’t disclosed that his brother-in-law is Jim Cirbus, the president of the CLP. Town Attorney Joel Seachrist said Lawton did not have to disclose that information.

“I’ve seen your garbage, and I’ve been watching it,” Lawton told Conroe. “I feel like your focus has been misguided.”

Lawton challenged the ethics of the CLA leadership by stating that they have lacked transparency and have not acted on input from the community.

“We are a very transparent organization,” Conroe said.

Board members said they would rather wait on deciding to give lake organizations money this year until the county-wide memorandum of understanding materializes later this month. In the Busti town budget, there is a line item for Chautauqua Lake, and money will be distributed to one or many lake groups from that source.

“I don’t think all the money should go to the CLA,” said Rudy Mueller, town and CLA board member.

Mueller called the requested $20,000 “not reasonable.” Town Board Member Todd Hanson said that the town has planned to spend more on lake needs this year, but those funds could be allocated elsewhere.

“That could very well complicate things,” said Conroe, who noted they plan on hiring summer help during the spring.

The CLA will be presenting financial information and funding scenarios to relevant municipal and county parties Thursday.