Dalton Township officials are trying to decide just how much chemical treatment is necessary to fight excessive weed growth in four popular lakes – Twin Lake, North Lake, Middle Lake and West Lake.
This summer the focus is on West Lake, where some residents have complained a lot of fish have died and blame it on what they believe is too much chemical treatment.
The issue is even more pertinent this year because the township will soon have decisions to make about hiring a company for chemical weed treatment in the future.
The PLM Lake and Land Management Corp., based in Alto, Michigan, currently has separate contracts with Dalton Township to treat all four lakes for weeds during the summer months.
The contracts for each lake are staggered, and this is the final year of PLM’s contact to treat West Lake. The contracts for Twin Lake will expire in 2025, followed by Middle Lake in 2026 and North Lake in 2027.
Because of that, as well as the number of complaints he’s had regarding fish death in West Lake, Dalton Township Supervisor Jeff Martin is trying to determine whether the weed treatments in that lake are appropriate or excessive.
He has reached out to one other private company and was told the lake has been treated with too many chemicals, resulting in a lowered fish population.
Now Martin has a call in to the Grand Valley State University Water Resources Institute, asking them to test and determine how effectively the lake is being treated.
He has also reached out to several private companies who do similar work, hoping GVSU or one of those firms can give the township the answers it needs at a reasonable cost.
“That contract (for West Lake) is up this year, and we have to see if it makes sense to have someone other than PLM do it,” Martin said. “I don’t know if they are doing it correctly or well. I am not an expert in the field. That’s why I reached out to Grand Valley to see if they will do testing for us. Hopefully they will. That would be excellent. If they don’t, I will work on finding someone else.”
Homeowners who live along all four lakes pay a special property tax assessment every year for chemical weed treatment.
The costs vary from year to year, depending on the amount of treatment, but overall it’s quite moderate. Last year the township spent $7,849 to treat Twin Lake, $3,722 for North Lake, $1,344 for West Lake and $1,269 for Middle Lake.
PLM does inspections once a month during the summer months on all four lakes and “treat as needed for exotic plants,” Martin said.
“We’ve had complaints since I have been here about overtreating and killing off the fish,” Martin said. “Some people say all four lakes are overtreated, others say they are treated just right, but most of the complaints for overtreatment come from West Lake.
“Some people there collect money from residents to buy fish and have the lake stocked for fishing, and have seen a lot of fish die off, (allegedly) because there aren’t enough natural plants left in the lake for them to feed on and build their beds.”
Some other residents who live around West Lake don’t like weeds and approve of the level of chemical treatments, Martin said.
“We have residents with weeds around their docks and want them gone,” Martin said. “There are people with boats who basically want the lake to be like a swimming pool. All the weeds could be gone and they would be fine with that.”
Martin said he recently toured West Lake with officials from another weed control company and was told West Lake is overtreated. He said they took him to various parts of the lake, noted a lack of fish beds and suggested that was the result of chemicals.
Now Martin is hoping to get some answers from an impartial source with expertise on the issue, so he can make a recommendation to the township board about future chemical treatment contracts.
“Hopefully testing results will be available by July or August,” he said.
