Sat 17 Jan 2009
Spraying Commercial Pesticides Near a Waterway
Posted by smb under Pesticides , West Nile[3] Comments
Jeff Frontz (coordinator of the website for smart spraying for West Nile mosquitoes) writes:
A decision was handed down a few days ago from the US 6th Circuit Court of Appeals (Ohio is in the 6th Circuit). The gist is that if you’re going to apply pesticides near a waterway, a Federal NPDES permit is needed.
This article has info about it in layperson’s terms:
http://enviro.blr.com/news.aspx?id=99129
3 Responses to “Spraying Commercial Pesticides Near a Waterway”
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January 24th, 2009 at 7:46 am
does this also apply to herbicides? Round up is very bad around streams and is very harmful to fish and amphibians.
January 30th, 2009 at 9:26 am
Jeff Frontz writes:
I’m not a lawyer, but my take would be that if you’re far from the water and you’re painting it on, then it’s a non-issue. If you’re close to the water, Round-up is probably not the best choice for eradicating invasives; I seem to recall the Round-up is pretty poisonous to amphibians and other water creatures (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roundup#Aquatic_effects).
Have you folks ever used a “weed wrench”? Cindy bought one and we love it. http://www.weedwrench.com/ If you want to borrow ours for one of your group-pulls, let us know. It takes about 15 seconds to get the hang of it; after that, there will be contention for use (it’s pretty fun!).
Jeff
P.S. I suspect that this ruling is going to get some serious review (perhaps by the Supreme Court) since I think it will put a tremendous (and perhaps unbearable) amount of pressure on agribusinesses/farmers.
March 4th, 2009 at 4:00 pm
If the court decision stands, (At present there is a stay on the ruling.), an NPDES (National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System) permit would be required for any activity where unused insecticide residue (waste) do or can reach federal navigable waters. However, under many circumstances, if the pesticide is used for its intended purpose and does not leave an unintended residue (waste), no permit would be needed. Before any permits could be required the EPA would have to create the permit process. Also, the court ruling found that all biological materials will require an NPDES permit even if no unintended residue remains after treatment. In any case, NPDES permits are already routinely issued for all sorts of activities. If this ruling stands, it will mainly impact small farms, organic farms and possibly individuals. There will not be a major effect on large agribusinesses or mosquito control programs.