CCB MEDIA PHOTO
Barnstable Town Hall.
CENTERVILLE – Around $82,000 in the Town of Barnstable’s FY 2018 budget is dedicated to controlling hydrilla growth at Middle Pond in Marstons Mills and Long Pond in Centerville.
Both locations have been closed to boat launching temporarily to stop hydrilla from spreading to other ponds.
“We’re trying to make sure that we don’t have invasive species take over any of our fresh water ponds and render them unusable to our residents and certainly you don’t want it to be detrimental to the aquatic life either,” said Town Manager Mark Ells.
The rooted aquatic plant is known as a noxious weed that chokes off the water body for boating, fishing and swimming.
In the 1980’s, it attracted national attention when infestations of the plant were found in the Potomac River in Washington, D.C.
Hydrilla is documented throughout the southern United States from California to Delaware.
“These are things that in many cases people have either transferred from another location or in some cases they’ve had it in an aquarium and they just dumped it in the pond not knowing that the species is just going to take off and ultimately dominate waterbodies,” said Ells.
Town officials plan to use a brand of aquatic herbicide called Sonar to control the growth.
After the application of Sonar in June, test samples will be collected every two weeks and a second application will be applied in July.
By JUSTIN SAUNDERS, CapeCod.com Newscenter
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