McCall council endorses five‑year Eurasian watermilfoil plan, adds drinking‑water caveats

The McCall City Council voted unanimously to endorse a five‑year, adaptive management plan aimed at reducing Eurasian watermilfoil on Payet Lake while requiring close mitigation and monitoring to protect the city’s drinking water.

Kurt Wolf, McCall parks and recreation director, presented the plan on behalf of a local technical advisory group that worked with the Idaho State Department of Agriculture (ISDA). "This is a five‑year adaptive management plan…it's also just the first step to a much more expansive lake and resource management plan moving forward," Wolf told the council.

Deb Faraday, a member of the Big Payet Lake Water Quality Council and the local watershed advisory group, described her shift from opposition to support after reviewing committee work and evidence. "I was opposed to this last year...attending these meetings and learning more about this process…changed my mind," Faraday said, urging complementary measures such as boat‑clean stations, stormwater improvements, and sediment monitoring.

ISDA presenters, including Chief Treatment Engineer Jeremy Varley and bureau chief Nick Zerlu, described an integrated approach combining targeted herbicide applications, diver‑assisted removal and monitoring. Varley and Zerlu cited a similar multi‑year program on Hayden Lake as evidence that treatments can reduce milfoil without documented adverse effects to municipal drinking water when mitigation and intake‑specific measures are used.

Council and public questioning focused on drinking‑water safety, sediment persistence and byproducts, and sampling protocols. Dave Bara, WAG water quality council member, said prior studies (Lake George) showed a breakdown product persisting in sediments and urged core sampling; ISDA and the local group committed to pre‑ and post‑treatment sediment and water sampling. "We're going to do core samples. We're going to watch this. We're going to follow the science," technical committee members said.

Multiple council members expressed comfort with the plan after hearing about the working group’s local experts and monitoring commitments, but requested specific language limiting detection of the plan’s proposed herbicide (the committee identified a specific herbicide for year one) at the city’s water treatment plant. Council member Giles moved to endorse the plan with that caveat; the motion was seconded and passed on a roll call vote: Giles — yes; Nelson — yes; Mayor Nielson — yes; Machzik — yes; Thrower — yes.

The endorsement asks staff and the technical advisory group to prioritize mitigation around intake locations, implement third‑party water sampling at depth near the Davis Beach intake, add sediment core sampling to the monitoring plan, and avoid near‑intake applications in year one. ISDA and local partners said monitoring and adaptive changes will guide years two through five.

The council’s endorsement does not itself authorize treatments; it expresses local support and a list of required monitoring and mitigation conditions before any application within proximity to the city’s intakes.