Steve Tvedten of Get Set, Inc.'s email to Lyndon Hawkins of the California Department of Pesticide Regulation .

Questions have been asked of the California Department of Pesticide Control since Fontana Unified School District declined to consider a pesticide free IPM program because of the Department of Agriculture's opinion about only utilizing registered pesticides to eliminate pests.  The California Department of Pesticide Regulation has remained silent and not responded to these issues:

Subject: Birds and Fish are dying in your State (CA)
       Date   Sat, 05 Jun 1999 09:59:20 -0400
       From: Rosalind Tvedten <stvedten@earthlink.net>
 Organization: Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)
         To: Lyndon Hawkins <hawkins@empm.cdpr.ca.gov>
 

Lyndon,  your insistance that only "registered" pesticide poisons be used to "control" pests in California, continues to kill many other living things ---- and you still have your pests!  I thought you might like to read the following article that discusses some of the results of your concept of  "IPM".  P A N U P S -  the Pesticide Action Network Updates Service noted on June 4, 1999 that: Pesticides Threaten Birds and Fish in California.
 

  Pesticides continue to be a pervasive threat to California's ecosystems according to a report released by Pesticide Action Network   North America (PANNA) and Californians for Pesticide Reform (CPR). The report, Disrupting the Balance: Ecological Impacts of   Pesticides in    California, calls on the California Environmental Protection Agency and the federal government to ban three pesticides--the   organophosphate insecticides diazinon and chlorpyrifos, and the    carbamate insecticide carbofuran.

  Over the last 30 years, the agrochemical industry has turned from organochlorines such as DDT to these neurotoxic   organophosphate and carbamate pesticides. Use of these toxic nerve poisons continues to grow, with an 18% increase in California   between 1991 and 1995. In California, some 17 million pounds of organophosphate and carbamate pesticides are applied annually in   urban and agricultural settings.

  The report's specific findings include:

  * Multiple pesticides are often found in California waters and sediments at concentrations that exceed levels that are lethal to   zooplankton, the main food source of young fish.

  * Most species of fish and zooplankton in the San Francisco Bay-Delta estuary have xperienced dramatic population declines in the   last 25 years. Toxic contaminants, especially pesticides, are known to be one of the factors contributing to these declines.

  * Toxic pulses of two organophosphate insecticides, diazinon and chlorpyrifos, occur routinely in California streams and rivers   during critical stages in fish development. The Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers as well as many creeks and sloughs in the San   Francisco Bay- Delta estuary are specific areas with this problem. Urban creeks are also affected by these two chemicals, as   pesticides applied around homes and gardens run off into creeks with irrigation water or storm    water.

  * The pesticides carbofuran and diazinon are responsible for the majority of bird kills in California, affecting many species of   songbirds, waterfowl and raptors. Controlled studies have shown that when carbofuran is applied to crops, as many as 17 birds die   for every five    acres treated.

  * Studies have shown that the frequency and number of bird kills in California closely parallels the agricultural activities that use   pesticides most toxic to birds.

  * Carbofuran applications to alfalfa, grapes and rice cause the majority of reported bird poisonings.

  The report also reveals that pesticides are used routinely in national wildlife refuges, despite laws mandating that protection of   wildlife and the environment take highest priority in these areas. In the Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge, pesticides that are   toxic to wildlife are routinely used on potatoes, sugar beets, and onions grown within the refuge. In 1992, five bald eagles died from   secondary exposure when the organophosphate terbufos was applied to sugar beets in the refuge.  A new "integrated pest   management" (poison) plan developed for the refuge still permits the use of a number of neurotoxic or endocrine-disrupting   pesticides.

  Some bird and fish species are already being impacted by pressures such as habitat loss. Disrupting the Balance warns that the   deaths of even a few individuals from pesticides can push the entire species that much closer to extinction or prevent their recovery.

  The report concludes with a chapter called "Restoring the Balance," which provides a brief overview of ecologically-based pest   management strategies that represent a long-term, sustainable solution to controlling pests without using toxic chemicals   ("registered" poisons)..

  The entire report is available at http://www.panna.org.

  Hard copies of the report are free to California residents and US$10 for all others.

  Source/contact: Pesticide Action Network North America, 49 Powell Street #500, San Francisco, CA 94102; phone (415) 981-1771;   fax (415) 981-1991; email panna@panna.org; Web site http://www.panna.org.

Lyndon - When will it be "legal" (in your opinion) to be able to wash your can in California?

                                                                        Respectfully,

                                                                         Stephen L. Tvedten