U.S. Water News Online
BOSTON -- The state of Massachusetts is set to lift a five-year ban on highway herbicide spraying, citing the safety risk of manual ``weed-whacking'' to drivers and roadside workers in high-speed areas.
The ban, enacted by the Massachusetts Highway Department in 1998, was hailed by environmentalists and citizen activists for removing the chemicals from miles of roadway.
But Jon Carlisle, a department spokesman, said the manual weed clearing is not only more expensive, it creates unacceptable safety risks. Last year, for instance, a driver distracted by the highway work was hospitalized after slamming into the back on a police car on Route 1 in Revere. Another car then took a door off the responding ambulance, Carlisle said.
``Safety is the driving thing,'' he said. ``That's something that's a little difficult to compromise.''
The spraying affects 113 communities from Agawam to Amesbury, starting in July, but involves less than one percent of all roadways managed by the Massachuse tts Highway Department, Carlisle said.
The Massachusetts Turnpike, managed by a separate agency, is not among the roadways covered by the policy. The Pike will rely on trimming instead of spraying to control weeds along the toll highway, a policy adopted several months ago.
As commissioner of the highway department, Turnpike Authority Chairman Matthew J. Amorello was behind the 1998 spraying ban.
Iris Vicencio-Garagay, an environmental advocate for the Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group, called the decision a ``setback,'' despite assurances from the state that it will work with communities and avoid environmentally sensitive areas.
``These chemicals are designed to kill things,'' she said. ``We're talking about applying herbicide in the most densely populated ... already strained environments in the state.''
The decision to lift the ban was included in the highway department's five-year Vegetation Management Plan, released earlier this spring.
The chemicals would be applied by a truck moving along the median below highway speed. The chemicals would only need to be applied once a year, as opposed to two to three manual cuttings, saving $50,000 to $60,000 annually, Carlisle said.
Communities where the spraying might affect groundwater supplies or wetlands will be consulted before spraying, Carlisle said. Only high-speed areas with narrow medians will be sprayed, meaning fewer miles of road will likely be sprayed this year, compared with 1998.
``We were sensitive to (environmental concerns) then, and we're sensitive to it now,'' Carlisle said.
He added the state will use government-approved herbicides, including relatively benign chemicals available to the general public, among them Roundup Pro.
``That doesn't make me feel any better,'' said Sen. Pamela Resor, D-Acton, saying that even common herbicides contain harmful materials that can infiltrate the water supply.
Resor was among a group of six lawmakers who wrote highway commissioner John Cogliano last month, asking him not to lift the ban and citing concerns about water quality and exposure to nearby residents. Instead, they argued, manual cutting should be restricted to once a year.
Matthew Wilson of the Toxics Action Center said the ban has had major benefits, and nothing that's happened in the last five years warrants lifting it.
``The mentality of the 90s was find it, open a nozzle and get rid of the stuff,'' Wilson said. ``We've moved beyond that.''
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