The costs for lake residents to control unwanted aquatic life is growing’just like the weeds.
The Atlas Board of Trustees approved a special assessment district for Lake Shinanguag weed control following a public hearing on Monday night. The new cost for 206 lake lots include $532 for 128 improved lake lots, $300 for 19 unimproved lake lots and $60 for 61 lake access lots. The special assessment will last five years.
Lake Shinanguag Association President Mike Bodenbach said if the lake owners don’t move on this now, by the Fourth of July the lake will be unusable due to the Eurasian watermilfoil (Myriophyllum spicatum), an attractive plant with feathery underwater foliage that came into the environment in the 1940s.
‘The additional cost to the lake property owners are due to treatments twice per year rather than just one (treatment),? said Bodenbach, who addressed the township board Monday night during the public hearing.
‘When the weed problem started in the 1980s the DEQ (Department of Environmental Quality) allowed 12 parts per billion of chemical to treat the plants. In the 1990s that changed to six parts (per billion). That concentration only makes the plant sick rather than killing it.?
Bodenbach said the new three part application will begin in 2012 and work by first stripping the wax off the plant, attaching to the plant and finally attaching the roots. In addition, Bodenbach said the DEQ is aware of the location wells around the lake.
‘Part of the problem with the watermilfoil weeds, is boat motors chops up the watermilfoil and spreads out over the bottom of the lake.
‘Those little bits of weeds grow,? he added. ‘Winter does not even stop the watermilfoil from growing’they grow under the ice and when spring comes the weed are right there.The new process may take up to three years to see if it works.?