Herbicide spraying at Lake Wenatchee
Some of you will recall that this last summer there was some controversy,
particularly along the South shore of Lake Wenatchee, about the county
spraying herbicides along the road right-of-way for weed control. This began
when one South shore resident protested the spraying because her domestic
water supply comes from water which runs out of a culvert under the road
and, in her opinion, would thus be sprayed with herbicide. I was concerned
also because our drinking water comes from an underground spring very near
the road. There is concern also about the herbicide getting into the lake as
a result of this spraying because of the high volume of ground water running
down the hill to the lake in June when this spraying is done.
We were informed by the county that this spraying must be done for the
county to be in compliance with a mandated noxious weed-control program
though the county does not seem to know with any certainty if any of the
offending weeds are even present here or not. We were also informed that
individual landowners could submit forms requesting that their land adjacent
to the right-of-way not be sprayed. This would require them to signs along
the road saying the shoulder area is resident-maintained. Those signs would
be provided by the county and would be in place from March 1st to November
30th.
Several of us did submit do-not-spray forms to the county. Those forms have
now been declared non-acceptable by the county because the form had been
altered by a resident. Those alterations included a statement that requested
the county make the entire South Shore Road a no-spray area and other
modifications of the language in the form. We have thus recently been
advised by the county that we must submit a new form because the added
revisions negated the validity of the forms submitted
Accompanying the letter advising us of the un-acceptability of our forms, we
were also provided a copy of a state Department of Agriculture report that
stated that an investigation by that agency as a result of the complaint
found 1) that the herbicide sprayed contains the warning “Do not apply
directly to water, or to areas where surface water is present” and 2) there
was no reason to believe that the contracted sprayer had applied herbicide
directly to water or areas of surface water. I followed up on this with the
Dept of Agriculture and found that contrary to statements made in the
report, no actual investigation had in fact been made because the state as
a matter of policy does not do such investigations when more than 30 days
has passed since the application of the herbicide and the date an
investigation could have been carried out.
I certainly intend to submit the required form to the county and if you are
concerned about herbicides being applied along your right-of-way or the
possibility of those chemicals getting into the lake, I encourage you to do
so also. You may request the form be mailed to you by calling the Chelan
County Department of Public Works at 509-667-6415. The County requests that
all forms be completed and submitted prior to the end of February so they
can be considered in the County’s contract with the sprayer.
If you have comments on this spraying program, pro or con, please post them
as a comment to this article and also forward them by email to Mr. Kingsley
Berg of Chelan County at kingley.berg@co.chelan.wa.us
I have requested that the county take a look at our road here in the Spring
before any spraying is done to determine if any of the offending weeds
really are even here. The county has said that the spraying is done because
of the mandated weed control program but also to keep down roadside brush.
If you do submit a no-spray form- it is then incumbent on you to control the
road-side brush along your stretch of right-of-way.
The county has advised also that they have received more statements of
support for the spraying program than against it but I don’t know if that is
specific to the Lake Wenatchee area. If that is your position I again
encourage you to post a comment to this article and let us know your
thoughts- that’s what this website is for. My personal opinion: Something
is changing this lake’s clarity and character and until the reasons for that
can be determined I would like to see the County take a very cautious
approach to applications of any chemicals that could find their way to the
lake.