Ledger Inquirer: How to battle hydrilla without ruining your lake

Let's stick with the subject we brought up last Monday, that being the proliferation of aquatic vegetation in Lakes Oliver and Harding.

You will remember that a Concerned Reader named Denver Smith emailed me about the problems he's facing as a lakeside homeowner on the Alabama side of Lake Oliver. He owns several watercrafts that are useless because the slough he shares with a couple of neighbors is clogged with vegetation.

I went for a look, determined he was far from exaggerating his problem and vowed to get in touch with folks who know the score.

Last week, I spoke to several people involved with the lakes and the river that creates them. And I've learned a lot.

First, the primary problem is hydrilla, which sounds like a bad Japanese monster movie. And it could be. The movie could be called "The Monster That Ate Lake Seminole" (because it has).

I spoke to two people with Georgia Power Co., because they own the lakes and take care of most of the spraying intended to control the hydrilla.

Robert Watkins, Georgia Power spokesman, said of course the utility is aware of the problem and is following a plan that has been in place for several years now, since the vegetation began to become a pervasive problem.

That plan involved the utility spraying to keep the main boating channels open in the lake and giving lakeside homeowners a list of approved contractors who they could hire to spray in their own specific areas.

That's worked OK in the past, but for some reason it's not controlling the growth this summer. So Georgia Power is planning to convene a group of stakeholders, which will include representatives from both sides of both lakes, the Chattahoochee Riverwarden and, of course, Georgia Power.

Watkins also suggested I speak to Dawson Ingram, lake resources manager for Georgia Power's Land Department. Ingram said Georgia Power has been fighting the plant for several years and will continue to fight it.

He said he hopes the stakeholders meetings will help assure homeowners that Georgia Power will certainly do its part, but will also spread information and advice to others to help everyone fight the problem. That's what it's going to take.

"We see it as an additional avenue not only to improve our lakes, but to improve communication with people out there," Ingram said. "We have our part to do at Georgia Power, and we're dedicated to doing our part. We're also trying to find ways to team up with others to see how they can help."

Speaking of the Riverwarden, I also spoke to Jenn Collins, director of outreach and education for the organization, who is very knowledgeable on the subject of hydrilla.

And whose name sounds kind of like a cocktail, as in, "I'll have a Gin Collins." But I digress.

Collins said there are several things homeowners can do to deter hydrilla growth along their particular bank of the lake. And there are things they most certainly should NOT do.

Among the things is cutting back on the amount of fertilizer placed on the lawn.

"The general mindset is if a little fertilizer is good, then a lot must be fantastic," Collins said. "That's not the case. The plants can only take up so many nutrients, and the rest of the stuff washes straight into the water."

The point of fertilizer is to make things grow, and it'll do that in the lake just as well as on your lawn, she said. She also suggested using organic fertilizer and letting grass clippings fall back onto your lawn, reducing the need for fertilizer.

Another idea is to plant a buffer of plants between the lawn and the lake, Collins said. Using the right plants, the buffer will help keep fertilizer out of the lake. If you're not sure which plants are right for such an environment, Collins suggested going to the Georgia Native Plant Society's website (gnps.org) for tips.

I told her I'd seen articles about how grass carp eat hydrilla and some that places have introduced the fish to help control the stuff.

"That's a really bad idea," Collins said. "We ask people please not to introduce another species. The thing with the grass carp is they don't just eat hydrilla. They eat whatever is there. Grass carp populations can devastate even the good plants that you want there to provide habitat for fishing."

That's what happened at Lake Eufaula, Ingram said. Faced with a growing hydrilla problem there a few years back, they introduced carp to the lake. Well, the carp did their job and ate a lot of the hydrilla, but they also ate much of the other good vegetation that fish need for cover. This did considerable damage to the quality of fishing on the lake, Ingram said.

Another no-no is taking matters into your own hands and doing your own spraying. This is another one the Riverkeeper and Georgia Power strongly agree on.

"That is our drinking water," Collins said. "(Spraying) has got to be controlled, and it's got to be approved by the EPA to be specific for hydrilla."

And while you're not taking things into your own hands, that includes getting down in the water and just yanking the stuff out like so many weeds.

"Hydrilla is a really smart plant," Collins said. "Not only does it reproduce with buds and tubers, but it reproduces by fragmentation. So when you break it up, every little bit that you've got floating around in the water, you've got another plant."

For this very reason, boaters who take their boat from any hydrilla infested lake and trailer it to another lake should painstakingly clean the hull and the engine to help prevent spreading the vegetation, Collins said.

This problem isn't going to go completely away anytime soon, if ever, Lakeside Readers. I've asked Georgia Power and the Riverwarden to keep me in the loop as the whole stakeholder thing moves forward, and I'll report back to y'all.

Stay tuned.

This story was originally published September 14, 2014 at 11:07 PM with the headline "Ledger Inquirer: How to battle hydrilla without ruining your lake."