Lawsuit Challenges Klamath Basin Pesticide Use
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Lawsuit Challenges Klamath Basin Pesticide Use
Date:
Wed, 23 Oct 2002 09:47:23 -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
Lawsuit Challenges Klamath Basin Pesticide Use
PORTLAND, Oregon, October 22, 2002 (ENS) - Five conservation and fishers' organizations have filed a lawsuit demanding better regulation and monitoring of pesticides that can harm fish in the Klamath Basin.
The groups are concerned about the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's (BOR) regulation of acrolein and several copper hydroxide pesticides known to be toxic to fish and other aquatic wildlife.
Oregon Natural Resources Council (ONRC), Headwaters, Institute for Fisheries Resources, Northcoast Environmental Center, and Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations brought this action under the provisions of the Endangered Species Act (ESA), stating that BOR must reinitiate endangered species consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS).
The groups' suit maintains that the requirement for consultation was triggered by the BOR's failure to meet mandatory "terms and conditions" that were imposed to ensure the disputed pesticides are used safely. The organizations filing the lawsuit maintain that BOR has ignored and violated specific ESA requirements for much of the last six years.
Conservation and fishing organizations argue that BOR's failure to report and monitor acrolein, a toxic herbicide placed in BOR's Klamath Basin irrigation canals to control unwanted aquatic vegetation, is a direct violation of the law.
"Measured in parts per billion, acrolein is toxic to all aquatic life it comes in contact with," said Wendell Wood, ONRC's southern Oregon field representative.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the basin's endangered "suckers appear to be among the fish species most sensitive to acrolein."
"BOR should not have continued to authorize the use of these and other toxic chemicals while at the same time failing to complete the analyses that were required as a condition of these pesticides' permitted use. Agency monitoring, with documentation that specific instructions for application are adhered to, is essential to prevent harm to endangered fish and other wildlife species," said Cindy Deacon Williams, an aquatic biologist with Headwaters.
"BOR has been 'hiding the ball' here since at least 1996. They apparently failed to do the information gathering altogether, but in any event, they clearly never properly conveyed the required information to USFWS for critical scientific and expert review," Wood noted.
The groups are also concerned about a variety of fungicide formulations used in the basin, which contain active copper ingredients that are toxic to fish. In 1995, the USFWS wrote: "It is apparent that copper is reaching Tule Lake from the surrounding area and that this element is found in both water and sediments."
Researchers "argue that toxicity data and sediment copper concentrations suggest that (endangered) suckers may be adversely affected by ingestion of contaminated prey. Given the existing and historic copper concentrations in Tule Lake, the Service believes that the use of copper containing pesticides on the Federal Lease Lands may exacerbate the problem and impact the listed suckers," the USFWS said.
"These chemicals are highly toxic and kill fish," said Glen Spain, Northwest Regional Director of Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations (PCFFA), the west coast's largest organization of commercial fishing families, whose jobs depend on a healthy Klamath River Basin system. "A lot more needs to be done to reduce their use or phase them out. Fundamentally this suit is about whether this sort of deliberate pollution will continue or whether we will start cleaning up the basin and the river which downriver fishing communities depend on for their livelihoods."
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