by Geoff Fox
Early last month, the National Park Service brought a machine to clear the growth from the C&O Canal in Hancock, but the project wasn’t finished and the Park Service is now awaiting a new machine, called a Weedoo, to resume clearing out canal vegetation.
Former Mayor and Hancock Historical Society President Dan Murphy had been given permission in May to talk to the National Park Service on behalf of the town to get the canal cleared out.
It was his effort that got the original machine here last month.
Murphy told town officials during the July town meeting he was told the Weedoos weren’t built to take care of the project Hancock was asking as it wasn’t heavy enough.
In the time since the Weedoo was here in June, the canal has once again grown over and the water is not visible.
“It’s pretty in its own right, but it’s not historic and it’s not what we want,” Murphy said.
Murphy said the National Park Service is going to bring an aqua harvester from Georgetown to take care of the growth in the canal.
The machine must be put into the canal via a crane because of limited access to the canal, but in Hancock, it can be backed into the canal around Pennsylvania Avenue and the C&O Bicycle Shop.
“Hopefully the aqua harvester will be coming to Hancock to clean the way it should have been cleaned by the Weedos that died in Hancock,” Murphy said.
At the June meeting, town officials had mentioned about the National Park Service putting sterile grass carps in the canal basin to help with the growth in there.
At the time, officials said the use of the grass carps was illegal in the state of Maryland because there’s a chance they could get into the Potomac River and eat the grass in the river.
Murphy said he brought this up during his recent conversation with the National Park Service.
He said his contact agreed about it being illegal because they are an invasive species and would reproduce and invade the area.
When told about the sterile carps, Murphy said the contact got excited and is researching that option for the canal after the clearing.
It’s unclear whether the Park Service or the town would supply the fish.
Murphy did add the National Park Service is not comfortable using chemicals to help with the vegetation.
Mayor Roland Lanehart said he watched videos online about the carps after the June meeting and saw one where a pond was overgrown to the point you couldn’t cast a fishing line because of the overgrowth but after a couple months with the carps, there wasn’t a blade of grass on the pond.
Murphy said he’s still working on the project, but he’s unsure when the aqua harvester is coming to Hancock.
