Mass. Market: NStar's weed removal plans run into consumer fears

If you think cleaning out the weeds in your garden is a headache, you should consider yourself lucky that you don't have the issues that NStar confronts every year.

The Boston-based electric utility is gearing up for another round of right-of-way cleaning to clear unwanted vegetation that could get in the way of its power lines. But this spring, NStar has a new twist to its annual ritual: Folks across Cape Cod are trying to put the brakes on NStar's plans.

The reason? NStar plans to spray chemical herbicides as part of its path-clearing work, sparking concerns about the chemicals' potential environmental impacts. The spraying is supposed to begin this spring, but Cape legislators are supporting an effort that would effectively delay the vegetation work for a year.

The controversy has received remarkably little attention off Cape, where NStar has similar plans for power lines in other regions such as the South Shore, the Boston area and its western suburbs. And the spraying apparently went unnoticed on the Cape for several years - until last summer, when Eastham residents found out about chemical sprays planned in their town.

Concerns were then raised in nearby Wellfleet and Orleans. The outcry expanded across much of the Cape after NStar disclosed several weeks ago that it would use herbicides in all but two Cape towns this year.

The criticism vexes NStar officials such as Mike Durand, a company spokesman. Durand says the company changed its previous method of clear-cutting the paths in 2003 to include some herbicide use, and he says NStar started using the chemicals on Cape Cod in 2004. He says the spraying, used in concert with other clearing methods, is far more environmentally friendly than the old system, which involved simply mowing down a path through the overgrowth.

Durand says trained contractors selectively use backpack sprayers to target unwanted vegetation while allowing lower-growing native plants to thrive. He says the crews are particularly cautious among sensitive resources, such as underground water supplies, and that the process itself is highly regulated.

NStar spends more than $3 million a year on these maintenance efforts, which collectively play an important part in ensuring the New England electric grid's reliability. Durand points to the overgrown trees in Ohio that helped cause the infamous 2003 blackout, leaving millions of people in the Northeast and Canada without power.

Durand says the switch to herbicides isn't saving NStar money, at least not right now. The company's goal over time is to put a more efficient clearing system in place that eventually requires less work and money to maintain.

But NStar may first need to overcome the concerns raised by local residents, politicians and environmental groups. Representatives from NStar and the Cape Cod Commission met on Thursday to discuss the one-year moratorium that NStar is resisting, although Durand says no final decisions were made by either side.

Rep. Sarah Peake says she first became involved in this issue after getting a flood of e-mails from concerned constituents in Eastham last year. The Provincetown Democrat says a year delay would give local officials a chance to map out all the potential groundwater sources that could be affected and give NStar the opportunity to propose alternatives that rely on fewer or no chemicals.

Peake says the spraying of herbicides is a particularly thorny topic on the Cape because the sandy, porous soil can allow water - including contaminated water - to travel quickly through the ground. She also says the Cape's aquifer water is often closer to the surface than similar aquifers on the mainland.

Rep. Matt Patrick of Falmouth also points to the long shadow of the Massachusetts Military Reservation on the Upper Cape. The MMR's well-publicized groundwater contamination has certainly added to the local protectiveness of the Cape's water supplies. After millions of dollars in cleanup costs, it's hard to blame Cape residents for getting a little anxious about this issue.

Peake says the Cape's State House delegation plans to write a letter to state agricultural commissioner Scott Soares, asking to extend the public comment period on NStar's latest vegetation management plan for 12 months - at least as far as the Cape towns are concerned.

Durand, meanwhile, says NStar considers the extension to be unnecessary because the cleanup crews can work around sensitive areas along the company's nearly 150 miles of power lines on the Cape until all wells and other resources can be added to NStar's maps.

Either way, it's likely there will be some sort of decision soon. The state's public comment period for NStar's plan is scheduled to end on March 26, and NStar's first "cut-surface treatments" are supposed to begin the following Monday.

NStar officials are learning just how much Cape residents treasure their water as a natural resource. Although NStar contractors apparently sprayed chemicals along the company's power lines for nearly five years without anyone noticing on Cape Cod, the herbicides probably won't go unnoticed again.

Jon Chesto is the business editor of The Patriot Ledger. He may be reached at jchesto@ledger.com or at www.massmarketblog.com.