More Than 400 Tons of Weeds Harvested From Lake Hopatcong

As it has been for several recent meetings, weed harvesting on Lake Hopatcong was again the main topic of discussion at the Lake Hopatcong Commission (LHC) meeting on Monday night.

As of Aug. 15, 402 tons of weeds have been harvested from the lake, through the use of three harvesters.

“There have been a few little glitches with the equipment, but the workers have made the repairs and kept on going,” said Russell Felter, chair of the LHC.

“Harvesting is scheduled to continue until mid-September, and then the harvesters will be pulled out of the water and prepared for the winter,” he added.

The harvesters will be stored at a building in Franklin, NJ. The LHC looked into a building in Roxbury, but rejected it because the harvesters wouldn’t fit in the building.

“The doors weren’t wide enough to accommodate the eqipment,” Felter said.

Lake Hopatcong resident John Kurzman expressed concern with the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) taking over as employers for the seasonal workers charged with harvesting the weeds.

“While I’m happy that the employees still have their jobs (with the DEP), the DEP has made it very clear in the past that it doesn’t believe that weed harvesting is an effective use of money,” Kurzman said. “The kinds of projects they want to fund are more permanent things, like storm drains. Now they are in charge of the very program that they’ve said they don’t believe in. What does this mean for future seasons?”

Felter assured Kurzman, as well as the rest of the attendees, that the DEP has committed to weed harvesting in the future.

“We need to work on the details, but once we have further discussions with the DEP, we will give you more information on future harvesting,” he said.

Several attendees had questions regarding what parts of the lake have been harvested.

“The workers have assured me that they have been all around the lake at least once, and are working on getting back to places that need more work,” Felter said. “I will check with them again to be sure that they will be all around the lake.”

Hopatcong resident Fred Steinbaum asked if money could be put into next year’s LHC budget for three or four dumpsters to be placed around the lake so residents could dispose of floating debris. Felter said the commission would take the suggestion under advisement.