Baggett clarifies county’s policy on herbicide treatment near lake shores

Franklin County Engineer Jason Baggett clarified some recent work by his Franklin County Highway Department after a citizen raised concerns about herbicide being applied to vegetation near the shoreline of Cedar Creek.

After being contacted by two residents raising the issue, the Franklin Free Press asked Baggett about his department’s policy on herbicide use near the county’s lake system. 

The particular area in question is located near Britton Bridge where the residents saw dead brush along the shoreline.

Highway Department employees use two different herbicides to treat vegetation in Franklin County. The first is similar to Roundup, which may be applied to shoreline brush, Baggett said, and has no restrictions against such use.

The second herbicide, MSMA (monosodium methanearsonate), is a much stronger treatment. MSMA is strictly regulated and heavily restricted by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which owns shorelines around the entire Franklin County Bear Creek Lakes system in where and how it may be applied.

But Baggett said the area near the water was not sprayed at all, and his department observes a 100-foot minimum distance from shoreline when applying MSMA.

Additionally, Baggett said only employees who are state-certified applicators may apply MSMA.

Those employees must complete an annual certification course to become state-certified.

What happened in the area in question, Baggett explained, was that after it was sprayed observing the shoreline limit, Highway Department employees returned and brush cut the same area, including tree limbs and undergrowth.

“After we brush cut, everything died so it may have looked like we sprayed all of it,” Baggett said. “If we cut tree limbs, the leaves turn brown.

“We spray it every year, then we went back and brush cut behind the guardrail and that made it appear we sprayed further than we actually did,” he added. 

TVA regulations also prohibit private landowners of property adjacent to

TVA land or holding a shoreline residential access permit from applying MSMA, which has organic arsenicals that break down into highly inorganic arsenic, according to the EPA ban on MSMA for residential use.

TVA Rule 18 CFR Sec. 1304.203 states that

TVA owned residential access shore land may not be treated with MSMA unless it’s approved in advance by an official vegetative management plan, with application limited on TVA shore lands by state-certified applicators.