Wayland water committee approves $1,019 Dudley Pond test, eyes tight budget

WAYLAND — December 2, 2025 — Wayland water panel approves $1,019 Dudley test as Heard Pond costs eat the budget. The Surface Water Quality Committee voted 3-0 to pay Pace Analytical $1,019.40 for fall Dudley Pond water chemistry testing, with Chair Thomas Klem reporting roughly $25,000 of the committee's $30,000 annual allocation already spent once a missing $5,500 SOLitude herbicide invoice is counted. Member Thomas J. Largy said hand-pullers removed 13,775 water chestnut plants from Heard Pond in 2025, more than double 2024 and the highest count since a 2016 blowup, calling the number "quite disconcerting." A late-season survey found about one acre persisting in a cove partly under U.S. Fish and Wildlife jurisdiction. Klem said the Community Preservation Committee rejected a Heard Pond funding request, and the Conservation Commission extended the Dudley Pond order of conditions for five years.