AUGUSTA – The Maine Board of Pesticide Control voted unanimously July 21 in favor of a consent agreement, including a $4,500 fine, between the State of Maine and Arthur and Amelia Bond, of St. Louis, Missouri, concerning  the illegal application of an herbicide on a neighbor’s Camden property.

The BPC Manager of Compliance Alexander Peacock, outlined the sequence of events involving the application of the herbicide beginning in Fall 2021, and answered board questions at the regularly scheduled meeting held in Augusta. The 11-minute discussion by the board was frank, as members listened to the description of events, and wondered at the applicability of Tebuthiuron to live trees.

“If it is used on woody rangelands and applying it to the base of an oak tree...?” said one board member.

Peacock responded, recalling an account of Auburn University in Alabama, with its oak trees that were poisoned in 2010.

“A University of Alabama fan, in 2010, 2011, was upset with a University of Auburn football championship and he went out there with, I believe it was a 50-pound bag with this active ingredient, and spread it around those oak trees....”

Those trees, according to news reports, died.

“Oh!” exclaimed one BPC board member. Another shook his head.

“There have been other instances of that, as well,” said Peacock.

There is no human health threat but material will stay in soil up to 10 years, he said. 

In Camden’s Metcalf Road case, the soil is being removed down to the bedrock, he said.

“Wow,” commented a board member.

“All within the shoreland zone?” asked a board member.

“All within the shoreland zone,” said Peacock.

“She applied it because.... They were trying to help the tree?” said a board member. “Is that the impression?”

“I don’t think they like brown tail moths,” Peacock said. “And I think if they killed the tree... There were some other allegations of the destruction of the trees to enhance the view.”

“Now we got the real reason,” said a board member. “OK. Thank you. I knew there was something deeper.”

“Now we understand. Enhance the view.”

“I was concerned initially that this person thought they were trying to help their tree,” said one board member. “I was concerned that, where are we going? But now it all comes clear.” 

Concern was raised about migration of chemicals into marine and groundwater.

Camden Town Planner Jeremy Martin told the BPC that the town is concerned about migration of the herbicide. He said Laite Beach is a public park and a public beach is down-gradient from the site. There will be ongoing monitoring there.

The large oak trees and soil have been removed and transported Juniper Ridge landfill, in Old Town.

Martin said the town and the attorney for the Bonds will be meeting next week concerning the consent agreement.

AUGUSTA – A consent agreement between the State of Maine and Amelia and Arthur Bond of St. Louis, Missouri, will be considered July 21 at the regular monthly meeting of the state’s Board of Pesticide Control. The state is proposing a $4,500 fine be assessed against the Bonds for the illegal application of an herbicide on a neighbor’s property.

This follows the discovery last year of oak trees and vegetation on Lisa Gorman’s 3 Metcalf Road that had been killed by the herbicide Tebuthiuron. While the Town of Camden was conducting its own inquiry to how the trees had died, the Maine Board of Pesticide Control (BPC) also stepped in as the sole regulator of the use of herbicides and pesticides across the state.

On Nov. 8, 2022, the BPC collected six soil samples and two vegetation samples for analysis, determining the presence of Tebuthiuron.

“In a response letter to the Town of Camden, Mrs. Bond’s recollection of events is that she purchased a product with the brand name Alligare, in a four-pound manufacturer’s packaging, transported the product from Missouri to Maine and applied it to the base of two oak trees at 3 Metcalf Road that she believed to be dying,” said the background summary to the proposed consent agreement with the State of Maine.

Tebuthiuron is used to control woody vegetation in rangelands, the summary said. The application, according to the summary, was made if the vicinity of “desirable plant species, in an area of bedrock, and in a residential area, “which are violations of the label.”

While Camden issued its own notice of violation to the Bonds, and while Gorman and the Bonds were involved in legal settlement negotiations, the Board of Pesticide Control has determined state violations that include:

1) No person may apply pesticide to a property of another unless prior authorization for the pesticide application has been obtained from the town, manager or legal occupant of that property; and,

2) The use of pesticide in a careless, negligent or faulty manner.

The BPC said in its proposed consent agreement that Tebuthiuron is considered, “resistant to biological and chemical degradation and that its principal route of dissipation appears to be transport to ground and surface water.”

Other effects included plant injury and mortality to a broad range of woody plants across the breadth of the Gorman property, the agreement said.

And, the contamination could result in migration to marine waters, where it would be toxic to marine plants and plankton, the agreement said.

The BPC continued to outline the toxic effects of Tebuthiuron, and warnings not to use it in areas of bedrock.

The BPC said the Bonds, “by and through their counsel and consultants, have been actively cooperating with the owners of 3 Metcalf Road and the Town of Camden since December 2022 in developing a remediation plant that will protect and mitigate against further damage and/or risk at 1 and 3 Metcalf Road, as well as any property owned by the Town determined to be at risk of potential damage.”

The Town of Camden is currently drafting its own consent agreement, which is be presented to the Camden Select Board at a future meeting following the outcome of the BPC decision.

BOARD OF PESTICIDES CONTROL July 21, 2023