On June 16, our town will be poisoning Lake Maspenock with Procella, diquat and other herbicides containing PFAS. It is a sad day for the lake I have lived next to for 42 years. Thousands of dollars of your tax money is being spent to degrade one of the most beautiful ecosystems in our town. I love to swim. I will be staying out of the water at my dock with my granddaughters, who have just learned to swim.

The CIG [Lake Maspenock Citizens Input Group] was formed in 2015 to address aquatic plant growth in the lake. I believe it is time to have more environmentally conscious groups take the lead here. I am a member of the Sustainable Green Board, which opposes the herbicide use. Julia Chun, our town’s sustainability representative, has led us to be qualified as a green community. The Resilient Lands Initiative is just getting started in Hopkinton. The LMPA [Lake Maspenock Preservation Association] has helped the lake in many ways, but it needs to remember that the “P” stands for “preservation.”

Most of the alternative methods (other than drawdown) have not even been tried. I hope the Conservation Commission will look deeply at the ecological health of our lake before rubber-stamping a misguided poison plan in the future. Be on the lookout for a snail die-off after diquat is applied (they float). Fewer water birds on the upper basin and serious questions about long-term human and pet health impacts are also things we need to be concerned about.

A sad day for our lake. A sad day for those of us who believe in respect for the interdependent web of life.

— Carol Esler, Hopkinton

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