Judge upholds cleanup of pesticide operation
Click Here to Add CommentSubject: Judge upholds cleanup of pesticide operation
Date: Sat, 27 Apr 2002 11:33:31 -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 entitled: Judge upholds cleanup of pesticide operation.
YAKIMA -- A ruling by Benton County Superior Court Judge Craig Matheson has helped bolster Washington's citizen-approved toxic cleanup laws.
At question was whether a former Grandview hop grower should be responsible for cleanup costs at a former pesticide operation where there is extensive contamination to the soil and ground-water aquifer.
"This ruling upholds the spirit of the cleanup laws that our citizens created by an initiative vote in 1989," said Jim Pendowski, the toxics-cleanup manager for the Department of Ecology. "If people improperly use pesticides and the environment is contaminated, those same people are responsible for cleaning it up."
Dan and Harriet Alexander sought reimbursement for costs associated with cleaning up a 4-acre site near Grandview found to be contaminated with the herbicide, Dinoseb.
The Alexanders claimed they were exempt from cleanup responsibilities under a provision of the Model Toxics Control Act that protects persons who properly apply pesticides. The exemption applies to "any person, who for the purpose of growing food crops, applies pesticides or fertilizers without negligence, and in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations."
From 1976 to 1985, the Alexanders owned and operated Yakima Chief Ranches, a large hop-farming operation. The Alexanders used their property at West King Tull Road as a major center for storing and preparing Dinoseb to be applied on adjacent hop fields they owned.
In 1998, Dinoseb was discovered in two nearby wells at concentrations that were 50 times greater than drinking-water standards. Soil contamination also was found throughout the 4-acre site where pesticides were mixed and stored. That same year, Ecology ordered the Alexanders to investigate the cause and extent of contamination at the site and to remove contaminated soil.
Evidence presented by Ecology in court showed the Alexanders did not follow the laws and regulations that applied to the proper handling of the pesticide during the years 1976 to 1985. In addition, evidence presented showed a 30-gallon barrel containing some Dinoseb was found on the property, along with four other empty Dinoseb barrels, in 1998. Dinoseb was banned by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1986.
"Judge Matheson's decision affirms the Department of Ecology's ability to protect people's health and our drinking-water aquifers from contamination," Pendowski said. "Since the inception of this law, nearly 5,000 contaminated sites have been cleaned up throughout the state."
http://access.wa.gov/news/article.asp?name=n0204183.htm
Well Mr. Helliker, nearly 5,000 pesticide contaminated sites have been found since 1989, where people improperly used your "registered" pesticide POISONS just in one State! Can you imagine all of the "legal" contamination "they" do not have to clean up, in just this one State? Combine that with all of the other "registered" CONTAMINATION caused by "proper use" and misuse of your "registered" POISONS throughout the entire world and you get an idea of just what you have accomplished just in a few years! Edward O. Wilson once noted: "Choose a goal that seems right for you and strive to be the best, however hard the path. Aim high. Behave honorably. Prepare to be alone at times, and to endure failure. Persist! The world needs all you can give." Do you honestly think the world really "needs" all of what you have given it?
Respectfully, Stephen L. Tvedten
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