Vol. 15—1961 - NorthEastern Weed Science Society

471.
his house. He can't pull a fishing line or row a boat through
the weed masses. He sees his property declining in value.
Little does he .realize.that he may-have contributed to the
problem himself' byh~l1vily dosing his lawn with chemical fertilizers
and having his sprinkling leach them into the lake
to provide more nutrients for the weeds.
He decides to cut the weeds. This works out fine until
he tries to haul out these water saturated.weeds. He then
turns to the chemical manufacturers. After all, if they can
provide chemicals to keep his lawn weed free they must have
something to help his lake.
At this point the water purveyor whose reservoir is just
downstream steps in. His network of inspectors has told him
that Lake X intends to chemically treat the water for weed
control purposes.
The water purveyor's primary responsibility is to his
consumers and that responsibility is to continually provide.
them with water free fram disease-producing bacteria, water
free from noxious taste and odors, water as esthetically
pleasing as is economically possible. In most cases there is
only a single source of water and if this goes bad he may be
unable to meet the demands his customers place upon him.
Therefore, the New Jersey State Department of Health has
backed him up with state laws~ including Title 58, Which prohibits
the introduction of any polluting matter into waters
~bove the point at which water for potable purposes is obtained.
Polluting matter is anything which will render the water
unfit to drink, either from a bacteriological, chemical or
physical standpoint.
Therefore, the water purveyor must be conservative. He
cannot take a chance or gamble that any chemical introduced
above his intake will or will not cause him problems, problems
from tastes and odors, problema from an undesirable chemical
build-up, or problems from a bacteriological standpoint.
Two years ago the North Jersey District Water Supply Commission
receiv.ed" its flrst application to treat aquatic weeds
wi th dhemicals. The la.lee in question had a surface area of Be'
acr~s 8.!ld·,thf3 everflow was less than a mile above the reservoir.
The chemical. proposed for use was Sodium Arsen~te.
Rather than refuse the use of this chemical without a full
hearing a meeting-cwasrequested by the water purveyor with
the lake owners and-the New Jersey State Department of Hea1th.
The pros and cons of the question were presented and the