Easton Conservation Commission Continues New Pond Invasive Plant Hearing, Splits on Herbicide Use

EASTON -- June 8, 2026, Easton Conservation Commission splits over herbicide use in New Pond as five permit applications are continued. The commission held more than an hour of debate at its June 8 remote meeting over whether to authorize aquatic herbicide treatment, using fluridone-based Sonar and procella core, across all 18 acres of New Pond, which has been documented with 100 percent invasive species coverage by fanwort and variable milfoil. Joe Honorado of Water and Wetlands argued that diver-assisted suction harvesting, or DASH, is unsuited as a first-line response at these densities, estimating roughly $12,000 per acre, while a resident's back-of-envelope calculation put a full-pond DASH treatment near $250,000 per year. Commissioner Philip Vescio said he would "vote no for using fluridone and the other chemicals," citing concerns that procella core qualifies as PFAS under Massachusetts definitions, a claim disputed at length by CPRO representatives John Goslin and Josh Burnside, who said EPA re-registration occurs at minimum every 15 years and that the concentrations involved are a fraction of those studied in cited papers. The commission voted unanimously to continue the hearing to June 29, 2026, and directed the applicant to provide formal cost estimates for both DASH-only and combined approaches; a site visit open to abutters is also being organized. Separately, the commission voted four to zero to approve an amendment at 286 Turnpike Street that reduces net impervious surface by nearly 2,900 square feet compared to the previously approved plan, and unanimously approved a driveway-widening amendment at 16 Goodspeed Lane adding just 113 square feet of pavement.