BY DARRELL HALEN
At the urging of a Pelham School Board member, the Pelham School District is asking a lawn-care company to reimburse the district for water testing.
The company was fined for applying pesticides too close to a well at Pelham High School without a special permit. The well provides water to the school. Last summer, the school board authorized spending $1,200 to have the water tested after pesticides were applied on school grounds. No pesticides or herbicides were found in the water.
LawnMaster of Methuen, Mass., paid a $2,000 fine to the state in early January. An investigation by the state’s Division of Pesticide Control, conducted last year, discovered that the company had applied pesticides within 400 feet of a gravel-packed well at the high school without a special permit.
The state requires a special permit to apply pesticides within 400 feet of gravel-packed wells and within 250 feet of other wells that are used for public use.
School board member Linda Mahoney said at the board’s Feb. 21 meeting that the board should ask LawnMaster to reimburse the school district for the special water tests.
“The reason why we had to take these tests was because someone negligently put down pesticides in violation of an RSA (state law),” Mahoney said. “Regardless of the amount of money, it’s a matter of principle.”
School board Chairman Michael Conrad said the school district could send a request for reimbursement. But if the company refused to pay and the school board sued to collect the money, legal costs might be greater than the amount spent on the water testing, he said.
School board member Cindy Kyzer raised that point, too.
Mahoney also suggested that the school district have the water tested again in the spring. Kyzer said she would support a second round of tests if the company that tested the water recommended retesting.
“If they think it’s not necessary ... to me, it becomes a waste of money,” she said after the meeting.
Brian Gallagher, the school district’s business administrator, said the following week that he had been advised by the company that handled the water tests that retesting was unnecessary because chemicals would have dissipated.