Washingtonians tell Congress about impact of pesticide mitigation for salmon
Farm and Ranch May 4, 2011 The science, or lack thereof, came up frequently yesterday during a joint House Congressional oversight hearing on federal agency management of the Endangered Species Act and the impact on the use of pesticides registered by the Environmental Protection Agency. Angela Beehler, who manages a mosquito control district in Benton County, Washington, told the joint House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee hearing that a recent Biological Opinion on endangered salmon from the National Marine Fisheries Service recommended changes in the label of an important pesticide for mosquito control, even though it was evident actual use information was never gathered from applicators. Beehler: “As a result the Biological Opinion grossly overestimated the amount of Nalid used for mosquito control in the northwest, while underestimating the public health importance of this product.” Washington State Ag Director Dan Newhouse told lawmakers that NMFS preferred to use computer models rather than real data collected from stream monitoring in Washington. Newhouse.” “And our data shows that today‘s agricultural practices in watersheds across the state result in pesticide concentrations that are already consistently below the levels of concern set by NMFS and EPA I in these Biological Opinions.” West Mathison of Stemilt Growers explained what the ultimate impact may be on U.S. consumers of the spray buffers proposed to protect fish. Mathison: “If our production declines American consumers will simply enjoy more imported products by foreign competitors with less stringent safety requirements.” I’m Bob Hoff and that’s Washington Ag Today on Northwest Aginfo Net. ?
