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NEWS: The DEC issued a draft DENIAL of the LBA/LBPT’s herbicide permit application.
Click here to read the draft denial.
This is excellent news, but our work is not over. We need you to submit an official public comment in support of the decision before the end of July 2023.
—After reading the draft denial, visit the DEC’s Environmental Notice Bulletin at enb.vermont.gov
—Search for the permit by number: 3642
—Click on the result at the bottom of the page (it should say Project/Activity Name: Lake Bomoseen Association)
—Click the Comment button in the middle of the page and follow the directions to submit a comment. Be sure to mention that you agree with the decision and why.
It is important that the DEC hears MANY public comments supporting the decision so that the decision is finalized and an appeal is less likely to be successful.
Even if you already sent letters to the DEC, the public comment period is the ONLY time when the DEC is officially obligated to consider your comments.
Everyone’s lake
At approximately 2,400 acres, Lake Bomoseen is the largest lake within Vermont’s borders - a nearly 9-mile stretch of interconnected, natural ecosystems in Castleton & Hubbardton. Its average depth is estimated to be 27 feet and deepest zone 65 feet, providing a rich mix of habitats from marshy edge to open water, unlike many smaller bodies of water. For people, it is a year-round homescape, a vacation get-away, or a retreat from the stresses of "ordinary" life. For its myriad animal and plant communities, it is everything.
Humans can so easily unravel those relationships, that interdependent web of living and non-living things. Over and over we've made decisions based on our own immediate desires without fully understanding the repercussions to the natural communities. We've impaired water quality, destroyed habitat, jeopardized food and drinking water sources. We've been seduced by chemical companies promising quick and easy fixes, only to discover much later that their brews caused worse problems down the road, which impacted the health of people or wildlife.
Lake Bomoseen is currently relatively pristine, having not been legally treated with herbicides in over 40 years - a perfect natural lab for studying non-chemical management strategies. Like all public bodies of water in Vermont, it is owned by the people of Vermont. According to the Public Trust Doctrine, “As trustee of these waters and lands, the state, through the Department of Environmental Conservation, has an obligation to manage Vermont's lakes and ponds in a manner which preserves and protects a healthy environment, guarantees the right of Vermonters to hunt, fish, boat, swim, and enjoy other recreational opportunities, and provides the greatest benefit to the people of the state.” We are all stakeholders with equal voices.
Many of us who love Lake Bomoseen believe that herbicides do not belong in our public waters. We created this website as a repository of information gathered in our quest to Keep Lake Bomoseen Herbicide Free.
In February 2022, the Lake Bomoseen Association (joined later by the Lake Bomoseen Preservation Trust) filed an Aquatic Nuisance Control Permit Application with the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation. The application called for use of ProcellaCOR EC to treat Eurasian Watermilfoil. The treatment was to begin in July 2022 with the application of ProcellaCOR EC to 223 acres in the north end of Lake Bomoseen. The following two years, the remaining 398 acres of estimated milfoil habitat would be treated. This represents treatment of 93% of the littoral zone over the course of three years.
No decision has been made yet at the state level about this application.
Background
Photo by Jeremy Hynes on Unsplash
Why we are concerned?
ProcellaCOR EC was first registered with the EPA in 2018. There are no long-term studies on the safety and efficacy of this chemical. Our concerns include:
The possible long-term effects of this chemical on human health
The possible long-term effects of this chemical on the Lake Bomoseen ecosystem
The effect that killing off large swaths of milfoil will have on water quality
For further details, read our page “Why worry?”
Click here for a printable factsheet, developed in June 2022 by this group.
Who are we?
We are an informal group, mostly from the local area, united by our love of Lake Bomoseen. Our group includes scientists, naturalists, educators, business owners, fishermen, nature enthusiasts, swimmers and other recreators, lakefront property owners (some of whom draw their drinking water from the lake), Lake Bomoseen Association members, parents, and grandparents.
We’re angry that an herbicide permit application was submitted with little transparency or public input. Our goal is to preserve this rich, pristine ecosystem without untested, unnecessary chemicals that could jeopardize health & habitat.
We also represent the concerns of the 1100+ members in the Keep Lake Bomoseen Herbicide Free Facebook group and the 3150+ signers of the change.org online petition.