The Hopkinton Sustainable Green Committee and the Lake Maspenock Weed Management & Control Advisory Group share the same values of protecting the community’s safety and goal of preserving the ecological health and beauty of Lake Maspenock.

There has never been a debate about that.

The conflict and debate between the two groups is about the sole reliance on toxic chemical herbicides to manage the aquatic plant life in the lake, and the chemical destruction of non-target life forms in the ecosystem.

The Hopkinton Sustainable Green Committee Environmental Working Group has done extensive research and interviews with pesticide regulatory state and federal officials, scientists, and environmental organization: hopgreen.org/environment/land-and-water.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources (MDAR) in complying with federal and state pesticides registration laws largely rely on the chemical manufacturers to self-govern the safety testing to humans and the environment.

Environmental organizations, court documents and media investigations have revealed tens of thousands of chemicals registered for daily use are never tested, and for those that are tested, the public has discovered they have been deceived.

The hundreds of gallons of herbicides applied in Lake Maspenock are registered by the Massachusetts Pesticide Board and five-member Pesticide Subcommittee without any state testing because they rely on the EPA, which relies on the chemical manufacturers (mass.gov/lists/aquatic-herbicide-active-ingredients).

The toxic chemical diquat, applied to Lake Maspenock, was banned in 2018 by the European Union because of human health concerns and its high toxicity to aquatic life.

There is no safety review of the PFAS aquatic herbicides MDAR and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection have registered.

This is what state officials told us, via Hotze Wijnja, an MDAR environmental chemist:

“The Department continues to update the Pesticide Board and Subcommittee on EPA’s development and work on PFAS and pesticides. To date, the Board and the Subcommittee have not developed any policies specific to PFAS and pesticides registration.”

These are the facts.

The Hopkinton Sustainable Green Committee opposes the unsustainable, ecologically harmful use of chemical herbicides in Lake Maspenock as fiscally and environmentally irresponsible.  The committee supports a non-toxic, long-term, holistic plan incorporating limiting watershed nutrient loading, barrier plants, benthic barriers, drawdown, hand-pulling and mechanical plant management as detailed in the Lake Maspenock Aquatic Vegetation Control & Watershed Management Plan from June 2021.

— Donald Sutherland, chair of the Hopkinton Sustainable Green Committee Environmental Working Group and member of the Hopkinton Water & Sewer Advisory Board

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