While anti shoreline protection advocates yell about how horrible 150′ buffers would be to those who live near the Sound, this is worth thinking about. The EPA today has instituted much larger buffers for specific chemicals in order to protect salmon. Maybe we should all agree that 150′ doesn’t seem that bad after all!
Seattle, WA — Today, the federal Environmental Protection Agency announced plans to place additional limitations on the use of three organophosphate pesticides — chlorpyrifos, diazinon and malathion — to protect endangered and threatened salmon and steelhead in California, Idaho, Oregon and Washington.
The announcement comes in response to a series of lawsuits brought by Earthjustice aimed at removing toxic pesticides from salmon spawning streams throughout the northwest.
In response to Earthjustice litigation, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) in November of 2008 released a “biological opinion” that set forth a plan for protecting Pacific salmon and steelhead from three toxic organophosphate pesticides. That decision came after almost a decade of legal wrangling between salmon advocates led by Earthjustice and the federal government. The biological opinion prescribed measures necessary to keep these pesticides out of water and to protect salmon populations in Washington, Oregon, California, and Idaho. The announcement from EPA today moves this work forward.
Although the experts at NMFS recommended prohibiting aerial applications of the three pesticides within 1,000 feet of salmon waters and ground applications within 500 feet of salmon waters, EPA has taken a different course. EPA believes it can achieve the same protections for salmon with buffers ranging from 100 to 1,000 feet depending on pesticide application rate and stream size. In their announcement today, EPA says it will require industry to fund and carry out monitoring of salmon streams in order to assure the pesticide restrictions work as intended.
Chlorpyrifos
• Contaminates rivers throughout the west at levels harmful to fish or their food sources according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The basins where chlorpyrifos was detected at harmful levels include the Willamette, San Joaquin, Tulare, and the Central Columbia Basin.
• Is “very highly toxic” to fish according to U.S. EPA’s toxicity classification system.
• Impairs fish reproduction by reducing egg production in fish.
• Inhibits juvenile coho salmon feeding behavior and swimming speed.
• Harms the survival and reproduction of salmon food sources.
Diazinon
• Contaminates rivers throughout the west at levels harmful to fish or their food sources according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The basins where diazinon was detected at harmful levels include the Willamette, San Joaquin, Tulare, the Central Columbia Basin and Puget Sound. It was also detected in King County, Washington streams.
• Impairs feeding, predator avoidance, spawning, homing and migration capabilities by impeding salmon sense of smell.
• Leads to weakened swimming activity in juvenile trout.
• Is acutely toxic to salmon food sources.
Malathion
• Contaminates rivers throughout the west at levels harmful to fish or their food sources according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The basins where malathion was detected at harmful levels include the Willamette, San Joaquin, Tulare, and the Central Columbia Basin. It was also detected in King County, Washington streams.
• Leads to weakened swimming activity in juvenile trout.
Apparently this may affect berry growers in our area and probably others. The lawsuit was brought after efforts to get the EPA to be proactive failed. Malathion is routinely used as fogger in the midwest for mosquito abatement as well as head lice treatment. It was first tested on poor populations in Puerto Rico slums in the 50s to combat malaria. EPA updated the risk assessment for Malathion in 2005. There appears to be some concern that “research in the 1989 Bulletin of Environmental Contamination Toxicology stated 25% of the malathion is still present in the water after two weeks and 10% is still present after 30 days” http://www.safe2use.com/poisons-pesticides/pesticides/malathion/genetics.htm
A web site that is worth looking at on the subject is http://www.chem-tox.com/malathion/research/index.htm#intestine which details medical concerns around the world with Malathion. Use discretion with that site, it’s validity is unknown to me. He does seem to refer to legitimate medical research articles in peer reviewed journals.