Eversource plans herbicide application in Sherborn
Eversource is looking for public feedback about its plans to use herbicide under power lines in Sherborn and surrounding towns. The comment period ends April 11, 2025 at 5 pm, so now is your opportunity to provide feedback. Given the town’s reliance on private wells that draw on local groundwater, residents would do well to learn about what’s happening and express their opinions. The herbicide applications start on June 1 and continue through October 2025.
In 2025, the vegetation management program will impact all of the power line rights-of-way in Sherborn. The statement from Eversource notes it will take “measures to protect sensitive areas such as public and private drinking water supplies” but it relies on public input to know about the location of private wells.
The utility has asked the public to notify them about sensitive areas located on or near the power line right of way. If your well is near the utility lines, let them know via the link below. Eversource cannot use herbicide within 50 feet of a private well and wants to know about any private wells within 100 feet of the right-of-way’s edge. Abutters should hear from Eversource directly by mail or door hangers.
Given the town’s reliance entirely on private wells, one could argue that all nearby lands are sensitive areas due to the connectivity of groundwater. Pesticides applied to vegetation, whether sprayed or dabbed, can eventually migrate into the groundwater and flow unpredictably underground. This is an opportunity to let Eversource know that pesticides should be avoided in order to prevent groundwater contamination in town.
Eversource has managed their rights of way for decades to reduce what they call “incompatible species,” such as tall oak, maple, pine and cherry trees. Their stewardship has created early successional native habitat, also called shrub lands, which are naturally rare in the state and harbor a wide variety of unusual plants and animals. These shrub lands are dominated by scrub oak, sweetfern, blueberries and other native plants, extending for miles. If you’ve walked along these corridors in Sherborn, you know how beautiful they are.
In a conversation with Michael Babineau at Eversource, I learned that they use an approach called integrated vegetation management. In Year 1, they mow and brush hog the corridor for density and height. In 2025, which is Year 2, they will use herbicide to target the plants that would otherwise grow into tall shade trees. They’re using primarily a low volume foliar backpack sprayer, supplemented by more precise approaches, applying herbicides to stumps, in sensitive areas. They spray once every four years using herbicides that are on the MDAR Sensitive Areas Materials List.
Eversource’s map shows only a handful of private wells near the power lines in town.
What to Know
Eversource routinely manages vegetation under power lines to keep trees and shrubs low so they won’t entangle the lines or related equipment.
Sherborn Board of Health has been notified and has an opportunity to comment.
Read Eversource’s vegetation management plan and five-year operational plan for more details.
Eversource is “selectively controlling incompatible woody vegetation” in Sherborn and many surrounding towns — see detailed project maps.
You can add your private well to EverSource’s map so they’ll reduce herbicide applications nearby.
You can reach EverSource directly at the following contacts:
Michael Babineau, Eversource Transmission Vegetation Management Supervisor, (781) 441-3798
Russell Holman, EverSource Distribution Vegetation Management Supervisor, (781) 441-8079
You can also reach out to Clayton Edwards, Rights of Way Program, Mass Department of Agricultural Resources, Pesticide Bureau, (508) 281-6786.
State law protects MassDEP Wellhead Protection Areas and many towns have designated areas. However, Sherborn relies entirely on its Board of Health regulations and zoning to protect groundwater from contamination.
