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Lake’s cleanup a work in progress
BY CHRIS PARKER
TIMES STAFF WRITER
WEBSTER — The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Affairs
and the secretary of Finance and Administration are looking to
release $10,000 to the town as a way of limiting sediment from
finding its way into Webster Lake.
But the state and Webster Lake Association (WLA) President Dick
Cazeault are hoping the town will match that amount, as a bill
about a larger waterway cleanup effort winds its way through the
legislative process.
Cazeault said state Rep. Paul Kujawski, D-Webster, and Sen.
Richard Moore, D-Uxbridge, are vouching for legislation that would
pump about $4.35 million into the establishment of catch basins
around the lake, the drudging of any areas damaged by storm water
drains and for programming for protection against future damage
caused by salt and the like.
The $10,000 grant would be used to add storm water drains off
I-395 near Union Point and the Nipmuc Youth Ski Club building and
near Action Marine just up the road, said Cazeault.
“They want to begin the first study and design process with that,”
he said.
Currently, Webster’s state lawmakers, WLA and the town are trying
to figure out where the millions in expected aid went. Cazeault
said then-Gov. Jane Swift’s administration had agreed to release
the money, but when Gov. Mitt Romney filled her shoes last year,
it seemed to have disappeared.
Selectmen mentioned the $10,000 at their Feb. 9 meeting and said
lake surveys have been done on what is needed. Cazeault said one
such study was conducted last year on the lake’s weed-filled
areas.
He said WLA has three key objectives based on research: Sediment
control, containing invasive plants and creating a policy for
those who build on the lake.
Cazeault said invasive, non-native plants, such as water chestnut,
purple loosestrife and hydrilla, are of particular interest for
him.
“This is going to be a long-term project,” he said. “It’s of
utmost importance to get rid of them and we know we can contain
them.”
Saying a treatment was administered last summer, Cazeault
specified one area in particular as needing such action. He said a
cove just off Route 16 near the fishing and game club has
basically become covered in weeds from runoff.
What isn’t helping the situation, much the case with other areas
of the lake, are the approximately 30 pipes that dump into Webster
Lake from surrounding roadways. The pipes, installed decades ago,
contribute to much of the invasive plant species population, said
Cazeault, who lives at Colonial Park.
Cazeault said he is encouraged by the work of Moore and Kujawski,
in particular the latter, whom he called the “main spearhead,” in
fighting to see Webster and its lake have a brighter, weed-less
future.
“Kujawski has been putting in a hell of a job, he’s doing a lot,”
he said. “He’s trying like hell to get money released to this
town.”
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