Water primrose is spreading, particularly in the Beaver Dam Lake Sub-Impoundment, a favorite spot for boaters and beachgoers.
"We want to go ahead and be proactive and treat this now so it doesn't get out of hand and become a real issue," says Ed Buchan, Public Utilities Department.
Buchan says too much of the weed could start to hurt water quality. It can also block boats.
"It could actually break off, a big piece of it could break off, block a water intake at the lake and also if it gets bad enough, it could also take up important storage room," Buchan says. In other words it takes up room in the lake, instead of having water in there, it could have weeds."
The City of Raleigh hired a company that applies a herbicide to parts of Falls Lake in order to contain and kill the weeds.
Buchan says he's received he has gotten phone calls from concerned citizens who are worried about chemicals in the water supply.
He says it's safe. Treatment will begin now and continue into the spring.
Falls Lake is full now, but last year's drought caused the weed.
"It can just respond to those really extreme conditions, and it just took off," Buchan says.
Now, it's time to get it under control so conditions at the like are as nice as they appear.
Learn more about the herbicides by reading Material Safety Data Sheets. The data includes info that companies must publish about their chemicals.
Renovate 3: www.sepro.com/documents/Renovate_MSDS.pdf
Habitat: www.cdms.net/LDat/mp6H2007.pdf
