Dump herbicide backers, not more chemicals

I’ve lost too many friends lately to cancer. I often wonder if the frequent and liberal application of herbicides like 2,4-D commonly used here in Banner County on roadsides, right-of-ways, and in our precious lake and rivers has some role to play. These chemicals have been linked to not only cancer but also to hormone, reproductive and neurological disorders.

I also wonder what these same chemicals are doing to the wildlife in the area and if several empty osprey nests this summer could be evidence of possible cumulative herbicide impacts.

It alarms me greatly when I read in the Daily Bee (“City to begin war on weeds,” June 21), Sandpoint Fire Chief Tyler’s claim that “… herbicides are non-toxic and are not harmful to humans or mammals when used according to manufacturer’s label instructions …” This is simply untrue.

And after attending enough of the Aquatic Invasive Species Public Meeting on July 8 to learn the county’s upcoming plans for more herbicides in our waters, I am incredulous. Despite the insistence of hundreds of local residents that more of our taxpayer money should be spent on viable alternatives to using toxic chemicals in Lake Pend Oreille and the Pend Oreille River, Bonner County will once again apply 2,4-D and another herbicide, triclopyr, to 1100 acres of our waters to control Eurasian water milfoil.

I wrote the first cautionary tale about the county’s use of toxic herbicides in the lake and river for regional news media in 2004. However, herbicide use began as far back as 1998 in the river by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Nine years ago Bonner County began its treatments. Some areas like Perch Bay at Sunnyside have been treated year after year after year. At what human and wildlife cost, no one really knows.

Adding insult to injury, the county has hired Terry McNabb to do the chemical application. His work in 2006 was despicable. He not only received the multimillion dollar contract to treat the lake and river but received financial kickbacks from the chemical companies for the chemicals he sold the county. He also time and again demonstrated his inability to work with members of the public who questioned or disagreed with him. I, for one, was needlessly exposed to 2,4-D when Mr. McNabb began spraying Denton Slough by refusing to wait for me to get off the water in the borrowed kayak I was paddling to tape record and document the wildlife present prior to treatment. I was working as a journalist and was at the far end of the slough, having arrived at 5 a.m., and not part of a group of campers and kayakers who were peacefully protesting the treatment at the other end. He is the wrong person for a job that requires good public relations skills.

Perhaps the time has come to dump the people who make such poor choices year after year and so easily dismiss public concerns — weed supervisor Brad Bluemer, and his boss, Leslie Marshall — rather than continue to dump herbicides in our vulnerable waters.

JANE FRITZ

Sandpoint