Pesticide issue ‘a national crisis'

WASHINGTON – If environmental groups get their way, West Mathison fears that it will be illegal to spray pesticides on up to 80 percent of the farmland in Washington state.

That’s why Mathison, the president of Stemilt Growers in Wenatchee, came to Capitol Hill this week to tell Congress that the pesticide issue “is now a national crisis.”

Farmers and growers from coast to coast are sounding alarms, fearful that regulators in Washington want to make it more difficult for them to spread chemicals on their land.

They’ve found allies in House Republicans, who are moving to ease the rules and strip some of the power from the Environmental Protection Agency, which oversees the use of pesticides to control insects, diseases and weeds.

The agency is getting heat from all sides: Environmentalists say the EPA has been far too lax in regulating pesticides and protecting the health of humans and animals.

“It is often forgotten that agricultural pesticides and herbicides are poisons for both fish and humans,” said Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations.

The battle is being fought on two fronts: on Capitol Hill and in the courts.

In March, the House voted to approve a plan that would negate the need for additional permits when spraying for pests near bodies of water. That legislation is pending in the Senate.

The court fight is focused on the Endangered Species Act, which requires the EPA to consult with other federal agencies regarding any pesticide that could harm a protected species. In January, the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity sued the EPA, alleging that it did not adequately consult with the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service in approving pesticides.

The lawsuit seeks federal protection for 214 endangered and threatened species, including the blackfooted-ferret, the gray wolf, the northern spotted owl, the Red Hills salamander and the Alabama lampmussel.

“For decades, the EPA has turned a blind eye to the disastrous effects pesticides can have on some of America’s rarest species,” said Jeff Miller, conservation advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity.

The EPA defended its work at a House hearing last week.

Steven Bradbury, director of the EPA’s office of pesticide programs, told the Natural Resources Committee that the agency has “a well-regarded program” for evaluating pesticide safety.

“A typical new agricultural pesticide must undergo over 100 different tests to characterize its potential risks,” Bradbury said.

The lawsuit is prompting alarm among farmers and key lawmakers.

It could eliminate 380 pesticides used in 49 states, said Washington state Republican Doc Hastings, the chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee.

Barry Bushue, the president of the Oregon Farm Bureau, said that managing for pests is “constant and critical.” He uses pesticides on his 70-acre farm east of Portland, where he raises strawberries, raspberries, tomatoes and pumpkins.

If the lawsuit succeeds and farmers and growers have to comply with 1,000-foot no-spray buffer zones around water, Mathison said, it would affect 80 percent of Washington state’s farmland.

“This would have a devastating impact on existing farms and orchards in Washington,” said Mathison, who’s also the president of the state’s horticultural association.

Hastings, a Pasco Republican, noted that the National Marine Fisheries Service has listed 28 populations of salmon as endangered in the Pacific Northwest and California. When federal officials determined that the continued use of pesticides could endanger the salmon, the fisheries service said it wanted to require a quarter-mile buffer zone around any bodies of water that flow into salmon-bearing streams. Hastings said that would affect up to 60 percent of the state’s farmland, and he said California, Idaho and Oregon would get hit hard, too.

With the issue in court, Hastings and 17 other House members — including Republicans Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Jaime Herrera Beutler and Democrat Rick Larsen — sent a letter to the White House asking that the administration take more time in advancing any regulations.

“At a time when our economy is already struggling, these regulations would cost jobs and impose a significant blow on the ability for the economy to recover,” they said in the letter.

Grader of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations said the economy would be hurt if rivers are poisoned and reduce salmon runs, which support tens of thousands of jobs. And he noted that hundreds of millions of dollars have already been spent trying to protect salmon.

“Poisoning these species with federally allowed pesticide practices that pollute rivers works at complete cross-purposes with all existing salmon recovery efforts,” he said.

In the Senate, a group of Republican senators led by Pat Roberts of Kansas sent a letter to Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., the head of the Agriculture Committee, asking that the panel take up the pesticide bill that cleared the House two months ago. In the letter, the senators complain of the “continued regulatory overreach” by the EPA.

“State and local officials have made clear that this is not merely a regulatory burden but could endanger public health as we enter mosquito season,” they said in the letter.

Environmentalists say farmers and the lawmakers who back them in Congress are trying to find new ways to avoid complying with the Clean Water Act.

“It’s disingenuous,” said Mae Wu, a staff attorney in the health and environment program at the National Resources Defense Council.

And agricultural experts worry that the heavy use of pesticides has already led to widespread water pollution.

“All that farming in the corn and soybean belts, which have our heaviest total pesticides use, makes its ways into the Mississippi River flowing out right through New Orleans to the Gulf of Mexico where we have a large dead zone,” said John Reganold, a professor of soil science at Washington State University.

Rob Hotakainen: 202-383-6000 rhotakainen@mcclatchydc.com blog.thenewstribune.com/politics