Island Must Ban Pesticides That Are Killing Fish, Rivers: Environmentalists
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Island Must Ban Pesticides That Are Killing Fish, Rivers: Environmentalists
Date:
Thu, 25 Jul 2002 12:15:27 -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 dated: Wednesday, July 24, 2002 from the Canadian Press entitled: Island must ban pesticides that are killing fish, rivers: environmentalists by ALISON AULD.
(CP) - The P.E.I. government is considering limiting the use of certain farming pesticides to help cope with a deepening crisis that has seen thousands of fish killed and river systems damaged in some of the Island's most pristine habitats. The province said Wednesday it is looking at a particularly noxious insecticide used widely on potato farms that could be linked to the mass death rate of fish and marine life that has risen sharply in recent days.
Premier Pat Binns, who was awaiting test results from some of the rivers, conceded that the problem could be related to the chemicals used on huge tracts of farm land to control bugs and blight.
"We have to look at what impact it's having on our province," Binns said Wednesday in Charlottetown.
"We're hoping that the products that pose a risk can be reduced, even taken out of the marketplace."
Environmentalists, fishermen and tour operators are urging the government to ban the use of many of the potent pesticides, which they say are the sole cause of an increasing number of fish kills.
Across the province, they've watched as fresh rains have brought a heavy casualty - streams full of dead, glistening fish that float in water they say is so badly contaminated it kills everything in its wake.
It's thought the pesticides leach into the soil and trickle into nearby water systems, killing marine life before they move out into open ocean.
"The chemical just wipes the river out," Dave Biggar, president of the O'Leary Fish and Wildlife Association, said after surveying 1,200 dead trout in a river near his home.
"The river I deal with is as thick as chocolate milk. We can't keep this up."
The groups say they're witnessing what could be the worst year ever for fish and marine life kills. There have been five so far, compared to none last year.
The kills, which have closed rivers to swimming and fishing, have left 12,000 brook trout, rainbow trout and sticklebacks dead in only a couple of weeks.
Agriculture Minister Mitch Murphy said only test results would prove conclusively that pesticides caused the deaths, but Binns said he was confident they would show that azinphos-methyl, the chemical the government is considering limiting or banning, would be found in the samples. It's use was restricted in the U.S. following fish kills.
The government introduced legislation that requires farmers to use buffer zones between water and farms, but critics say it provides little protection.
"Buffer zones are completely useless," says Sharon Labchuk of Earth Action in Charlottetown, referring to one location where farm land eroded and bled pesticides into a local watershed. "If it continues at this rate it will be the worst year on record."
A farmer was recently charged with violating the zone law after 5,000 dead fish were found in a popular fishing river.
Ivan Noonan of the P.E.I. Potato Board, said farmers are willing to change the way they use pesticides.
"Restricted use would be quite acceptable," he said. "The growers are upset about it. Pesticide usage should be reduced - everybody agrees with that."
Binns defended the government's record, saying a three-year crop rotation will help lessen the impact of farming on the environment by reducing the number of farms planting potatoes every year. There are 110,000 acres now being used for potato harvests, compared to about 89,000 acres in the early 1990s.
"I think we're at the outside limit of potato production and I think there should be less," Binns said in an interview. "We have to do more and we will."
Restricting the pesticide might come too late for Biggar whose recreational fishing business has slowed to a trickle as people lose interest in catching fish in streams they fear are polluted.
"People are scared to get in the water," says Biggar, who has restored Trout River four times after successive fish kills.
He fears that tourists, who once viewed the province as an unspoiled haven, are starting to view it in a different light as news programs show people hauling buckets of lifeless fish out of muddy rivers.
"The image is going all to hell," says Labchuk. "It's destroying every aspect of the environment."
© Copyright 2002 The Canadian Press.
http://www.canada.com/search/site/story.asp?id=1722A93B-59D6-426E-9BEC-E3651444F790
Well Mr. Helliker, When will it be "legal" (in your opinion) to use safe and far more effective alternatives to your dangerous "registered" POISONS?
Respectfully, Stephen L. Tvedten
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