Steaming the weeds

DOVER — The Garrison City is looking to steam the weeds away this spring and summer.

Last week, Dover’s Community Services Department unveiled its steam machine that sits on the flatbed of a Bobcat utility vehicle that will soon be slowly driving down the streets spraying hot steam onto curbs and sidewalks to kill weeds in a non-toxic way. The steam machine is part of the department's mission to meet a City Council directive last year to achieve a “substantial elimination” of non-organic products for turf management and weed control by next spring.

In the past, Dover has contracted with a vendor to spray the herbicide glyphosate on 30 miles of curbs and sidewalk for weed control. The focus has been on sections of the city, such as Central and Henry Law avenues, Broadway, Sixth, Locust and Silver streets and Back River and Bellamy roads. The vendor applied glyphosate, known better by its trade name Roundup, four times a season. Director of Community Services John Storer said weed control is needed not only for esthetics, but also to keep weeds from ruining pavement. 

There is a growing concern that glyphosate can cause cancer, though whether the product is a carcinogen depends on who you talk to. Some believe glyphosate rates low in toxicity while others believe it is dangerous. In the last year, California juries have awarded billions to plaintiffs who sued Monsanto, maker of Roundup, after the juries determined it caused the plaintiffs' cancer. Monsanto is appealing the rulings.

In years past, Dover sought bids for a herbicide treatment, an organic treatment and a third alternative, such as burning the weeds, Storer said. The city has received bids for the first two but never for the alternative option. Last year, the organic option was for the ammoniated soap product Finalsan, which would have cost $20,400 for four treatments, though the city was advised it may need up to two additional treatments to be as effective, bringing the total to $30,600.

This year, the city is forgoing the weed control bid altogether by killing the weeds with steam, which breaks down the plant’s cell structure, Storer said. Creating a steam unit took some creativity and ingenuity because there wasn't one on the market that passed the department's muster. Storer said there are some communities in California and Colorado that used steam but their set-ups weren't ideal. There are also communities in Europe that do steam treatment, but he said they use a specialty unit that costs more than $200,000 that could only be used for weed steaming.

Storer tasked Sam Crowley, the department's fleet supervisor, with finding a set-up that could do the job yet be versatile with other non-weeding tasks. He settled on the Bobcat utility that looks like a mini-pickup truck. It can hold the 2,000-pound steam boiler and is equipped with a transmission to drive at the slow speeds needed to ensure the weeds are steamed to death. The unit cost a total of about $85,000, which includes $18,000 for the boiler and the remainder for the Bobcat vehicle.

Department mechanics Keegan Glidden and Jacob Cummings designed and fabricated a front attachment to the Bobcat in-house that would allow one person to drive and steam the weeds. There is also a hose reel that allows the steamer to be used elsewhere, such as brick sidewalks or in the infield of a baseball diamond. Crowley and Storer believe it's the first steam machine of its kind in the United States.

Storer is hopeful the system will be effective in killing the weeds and pay for itself in a few years when compared to the organic treatment. But Storer and Crowley stress the versatility of the vehicle allows it to be used year-round for tasks including unfreezing frozen street utility covers during a winter water main break, cleaning gravestones and removing graffiti. Since the steamer can also easily be detached, they are also thinking of installing a brine system in the winter to treat sidewalks and other city areas.