Appeals Court Says Insecticide Spraying May Violate CWA
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Appeals Court Says Insecticide Spraying May Violate CWA
Date:
Fri, 8 Nov 2002 09:04:03 -0500
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
Greenwire - 11/7/02 - NATIONAL FORESTS
Appeals court says insecticide spraying may violate CWA
Before the Forest Service can continue spraying for tussock moths in Eastern Washington and Oregon, it will need to revise its environmental impact statement and get the required national pollution discharge elimination permit, ruled a federal appeals court Monday.
Overturning U.S. District Judge James A. Redden's decision last year that permitted the spraying to continue, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals instead sided with environmentalists. Charging that the spraying of the insecticide violates the Clean Water Act, environmentalists said the Forest Service did not consider the effect of spray drift outside the immediate area being sprayed, especially the region's waterways.
Tussock moths defoliate Douglas fir trees and the Forest Service began aerial insecticide spraying to combat the moths in 2000.
USFS spokesman Rex Holloway said the decision will not have any effects this year, as no spraying is scheduled. The last spraying occurred in Washington and Oregon in 2001 (AP/Billings Gazette, Nov. 6).
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