04-12-2010 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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I MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING Monday, April 12, 2010 7:00 o'clock p.m. (4. Funding Request for Milfoil Project, Continued) available yet to achieve a perfect balance. The City has relied on the LMCD in this regard about what the City should be doing. Bremer indicated she is not sure what the other alternatives are and that she would love to hear from Mr. Osgood regarding what the true life of the treatment is and how the application really works. Osgood stated there are two chemical herbicides that will be used on the three bays but that only one of them will be used on Carman's Bay. The chemical will be applied one part per million, which is a very low dosage in the water. The chemical degrades in the sunlight and has a half -life of nine to ten days depending on the water temperature. The chemical will break down completely within a matter of weeks to months. Osgood stated the main restriction is the watering restriction and applies to ornamental plants and vegetables, such as tomatoes. According to the manufacturer's label, the length of the restriction is 120 days or when the residual measured in the water is nondetectable. The applicator is charged with measuring that. Last year the treatment was unfortunately later in the year and there was also a drought. The chemicals are registered for use with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and are allowed for use. Osgood noted he does manage weeds in his lawn on a spot treatment basis. Most people do not know very much about milfoil and aquatic plants since they are under water, but the basic ecology is the same. Drazan stated as it relates to the safety of the chemical, according to the EPA, no herbicide may be registered for • aquatic use if it has more than one in one million chance of causing significant harmful effects on human health, wild life or the environment. The lifetime risk of dying in a car is one in 83, dying by being struck by lightning is 1 in 80,000, and dying by being struck by an asteroid is 1 in 200,000. People have more of a chance of being hit by an asteroid than by being killed with this herbicide. McMillan asked if the chemical is applied and things go perfectly, what they expect to happen. Osgood stated if the treatment goes as expected, the results will resemble Grays Bay. Some native aquatic species will increase and some native aquatic species will go down for a period of time. They cannot predict exactly which species will go down but the hope is that there will be practically no milfoil left and the native plants should survive. McMillan stated the interesting and difficult thing about Lake Minnetonka is the number of different bays, which have differing water levels and varying levels of phosphorous due to the dumping of sewage into the lake back in the 1960s. Some of the bays in the lower lake have better water quality than the upper lake. Some of the difficulty in trying to compare one bay to another is that they do differ, which will cause the treatment results to vary. Osgood stated the United States Army Corps of Engineers has advised the EPA on the use of these chemicals and will be advising on this project. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will also be doing the plant inventories before treatment, during treatment, and after treatment. Osgood stated he feels comfortable saying that Carman's Bay is comparable to Grays Bay and Phelps Bay and that a third party will be conducting the testing. McMillan pointed out there are some concerns from last year's treatment, particularly on Grays Bay, because • more of the native plants were killed than had been anticipated. Lake water is dynamic and constantly changing, which makes treatment difficult. The water quality diminished slightly in Gray's Bay and there is no guarantee the water quality will get better with the treatment. Page 5 of 15