WESTFIELD – The Westfield Sportsman’s Club, which appeared before the Conservation Commission in March seeking approval to use a chemical treatment to eradicate a weed infestation in the six-acre pond at the Furrowtown Road facility, will have to wait until Aug. 13 for a decision.
Ryan Joyce, a Wetland Scientist with New England Environmental, Inc. of Amherst, submitted additional details of the current situation and the club’s proposed plans to address the weed problem on Tuesday, just prior to the commission’s meeting.
Acting Chairman Henry Bannish said that the commission members were not prepared to act on the club’s request.
“We received your information this evening and need time to digest this report,” Bannish said.
Commissioner Dr. Jim Phillips raised a number of questions concerning the report data on nutrients in the pond, in particular phosphates and nitrates, which promote plant growth.
Phillips also questioned the methodology used to gather the new data that relied on water samples at the source stream and at the area of the pond abutting the weir or exit point.
Phillips questioned why samples were not taken from the area most effected by the aquatic plants that the club plans to target with chemical treatment.
“The area of concern is where people fish, an area where you did not take samples,” Phillips said.
The club is proposing to treat the pond with the copper-based herbicide Diquat, which would be applied to sections of the pond in stages. Joyce said that applying the chemical later in the season, as soon as possible this fall, is more beneficial that waiting until next winter or spring.
“Treatment later in the season is better than early in the season,” Joyce said. “The club is hoping to treat the pond in September. The club is looking to manage the submerged aquatic vegetation. The weeds have never been managed. That’s what the club is asking to do.”
“We’re planning to treat the pond to get rid of one specific plant, Elodea,” Joyce said. “We did a survey of the pond and found this species is everywhere in the entire six acres.”
A weir, or dam, holding back water flowing into the shallow basin, creates the pond, which is only three to four feet deep.
Joyce said that the firm assessed other means of weed control, such as physical harvesting, or drawing down the water in the shallow pond, but decided that the chemical treatment was the most efficient means of eradication.
Phillips asked if the water feeding the pond was carrying nutrients into the pond.
“What is different?” Phillips asked. “What is the point source of the nutrients flowing into the pond? Has something occurred upstream, a new development?”
Joyce said the pond is fed from wetlands north and west of the Sportsman’s Club property and that there has been no change in the resource area.
Joyce said that the weed infestation has been a problem for years, but the continued weed growth has become so bad in recent years that fishing is impossible because hooks and lines become entangled in the surface mat of weeds.
One of the major events at the club is the annual youth fishing derby, when the club opens fishing in the pond to children citywide as a means of introducing fishing to those youths.
The commission members voted to continue the hearing to their Aug. 13 session, to allow members to review the new data submitted by Joyce Tuesday night.
