NStar's herbicide use approved
Despite fierce opposition, state regulators have approved NStar's use of herbicides beneath the utility's transmission rights of way on Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard in 2013.
The Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources approved the annual vegetation management plan Friday, according to an email from the department's spokeswoman Mary-Leah Assad.
NStar vegetation management plan 2013
For more information on NStar's vegetation management plan go to http://1.usa.gov/1ajyvXP. Here are the towns
on Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard affected by herbicide
use under the plan:
- Barnstable
- Bourne
- Brewster
- Chatham
- Edgartown
- Falmouth
- Harwich
- Oak Bluffs
- Orleans
- Sandwich
- Tisbury
Plans are approved for the calendar year so the current plan will expire Jan. 1, Assad wrote. Eight Cape towns and three Vineyard towns will be affected by the use of herbicides, according to the 15-page plan.
NStar has not used herbicides on Cape Cod for the past four years as part of a voluntary moratorium prompted by local concerns about the chemicals.
"We're very pleased to have received approval from the (Department of Agricultural Resources) so that we can continue with this very important electric service reliability program," NStar spokesman Michael Durand said Sunday.
NStar uses a vegetation-management program similar to programs across the country, Durand said.
These have consistently been shown to be not only the best way to maintain reliable service but also to promote the growth of a self-sustaining meadowland environment requiring less and less use of herbicides, he said.
Herbicides are applied to target species by workers using backpack sprayers as part of a plan that includes mechanical controls and the encouragement of low-growing plants in lieu of high-growing species, according to NStar officials.
The exact time and location of herbicide applications under the current plan will depend on a variety of factors, including scheduling with the company's vendor, Durand said.
The utility uses only herbicides approved for environmentally sensitive areas, Durand has said previously. NStar has repeatedly defended itself as being heavily regulated and accountable for less than 1 percent of the Cape's herbicide use.
In 2011, a Barnstable County panel reviewing NStar's use of herbicides voted in favor of the utility's plan.
Opponents of the practice, however, argue that NStar's use of the chemicals poses a danger to public health and the environment.
"The adventure continues," said Sue Phelan, director of GreenCAPE, a nonprofit organization that has led the opposition to NStar's herbicide use.
Phelan said NStar has avoided discussing the group's health concerns.
"I guess we'll just have to meet them where we meet them," she said.
Most recently that strategy included demonstrations Friday at NStar's office on Willow Street in West Yarmouth and in Boston at the end of October with Cape legislators. Last week, opponents staked out the Osterville home of Northeast Utilities CEO Tom May. Northeast Utilities is NStar's parent company.
Although all 15 Cape towns have passed resolutions calling on NStar to stop the practice, the company announced in August that it would resume the use of herbicides.
NStar submitted a vegetation management plan for 2014 on Thursday, according to Assad.
That plan will be published for public notice on Wednesday, followed by a 45-day comment period, she wrote.
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