FEDERAL RULING HALTS STATE SPRAY PROGRAMS
Chemically sensitive Whidbey Island residents will get a break from pesticides and herbicides this year thanks to an Oregon court case that has forced the state to take a closer look at its chemical spray programs.
Subject: FEDERAL RULING HALTS STATE SPRAY PROGRAMS.......................
Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2001 13:24:32 -0400
From: Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization: Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)
To: Paul Helliker <phelliker@cdpr.ca.gov>
Director, State of
California, Department of Pesticide Regulation
cc: Christine Whitman whitman.christine@epa.gov
Dear Mr. Helliker, I thought you might like to read an article that appeared on the front page of South Whidbey Record Newspaper on July 11, 2001, entitled: FEDERAL RULING HALTS STATE SPRAY PROGRAMS - Spartina, mosquitos get a 1-year reprieve - by Matt Johnson.
Chemically sensitive Whidbey Island residents will get a break from pesticides and herbicides this year thanks to an Oregon court case that has forced the state to take a closer look at its chemical spray programs.
According to Kyle Murphy, interim director of the state Department of Agriculture's spartina program, state agencies will not spray herbicides on noxious weeds like spartina and purple loosestrife this year, nor will they use chemicals to kill mosquitoes.
Murphy said the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in June on a case the makes continued spraying legally worrisome. An environmental group called Headlands had sued Oregon's Talent Irrigation District under the federal Clean Water Act for mishandling herbicides. The court ruled that an accidental herbicide spill into irrigation channels violated the federal law.
With this legal precedent on the books, Murpy said, his agency is suspending its spray programs until 2002, when the state Department of Ecology is expected to have a program for issuing spray permits. Those permits are given for chemical spray programs that are deemed necessary for the public good.
"We've been sort of put in a holding pattern by Ecology," Murphy said.
The chemically sensitive on Whidbey Island are pleased with the spraying suspension. Scatchet Head's Lori O'Neal, who heads a group of 15 anti-spray people, said she was thrilled when she heard the circuit court's decision.
Ironically, the spray ban has thrown Murphy and O'Neal together on the issue of spartina removal. Last year, O'Neal and about 20 other volunteers took shovels in hand and dug spartina plants out of Cultus Bay. Until a spray campaign in 1997, the bay had been a haven for 60 acres of the invasive plant.
This summer, the digging effort is crucial, Murphy said. If volunteers dig enough plants on the scheduled Aug. 25 dig day, they will be able to keep the spartina population under control, which means the Department of Agriculture will not have to spray Cultus Bay with the herbicide Rodeo in the future. The spartina program will sponsor the event and will provide shovels, buckets, and an eight-wheeled vehicle to drive in the tidelands.
Digging on Aug. 25 starts at 10a.m. Volunteers will meet at the Totem Pole Park on Scatchet Head's Driftwood Drive.
To RSVP for the event, contact Lori O'Neal by email at islandaire@p..., Kyle Murphy at 360-902-1923 or kmurphy@a...; or Judy Feldman at the Island County Courthouse at 321-5111 Ext 211.
Well Mr. Helliker, We the people have a right not to be contaminated with your "registered" POISONS, just so a few corporations can male a profit.
Respectfully, Stephen L. Tvedten
If you would like to be included in our mailing list for continuing information on pesticides, Email Us. with "subscribe" in the subject line.