Controversy surrounding Pequannock Valley Park duck hunt continues

PEQUANNOCK - The Township Council continues to explore other avenues of removing the waterfowl from PV Park, Mayor Rich Phelan said Friday morning, even though it still plans to go through with a hunt whenever local officials deem it necessary.

The comments came after a Tuesday night meeting of the governing body where Phelan said that the council had received a number of form letters about the proposed hunt. Many came from across the country (including one from Canada and another from Great Britain), but only about six were from township residents, and those were the six he was concerned about.

"I’ve been in contact with people who have an issue, and we’re very sensitive to what they have to say," he said.

Phelan told the public Tuesday that he’d done further research into more non-lethal means of driving the animals away from the 27-acre park off of Alexander Avenue, but found that some, such as a $6,000 kite-flying proposition, are not only expensive, but are not guaranteed to work on ducks.

The mayor said he’d taken a ride to the park to take pictures that day and found no evidence of waterfowl yet (although Councilman Jay Vanderhoff said that the geese had left their "evidence" on the floating dock).

If, after the hunt, the town still fails fecal coliform tests, the township will pay to have a sort of DNA test done on the bacteria to find out exactly where it’s coming from, he said.

Elevated coliform levels closed the lake several times in 2010 and 2012, and forced it to remain closed until the levels fell back to normal. Typically, said Phelan, the town fails tests after heavy rains, which he thinks likely washed the excrement into the water. The Department of Environmental Protection has said the lake is too large to be chlorinated.

"We’re exploring every avenue," he said Friday. "But over the years we have tried everything and [the hunt] is almost a last-resort situation. I’m not a fan of doing it, but I’m concerned about the bacteria counts in our lake and the health issue it poses."

Still, no date has been set for a culling because, as the mayor said, no waterfowl have yet been sighted in the lake.

Email: janoski@northjersey.com

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