The State - News from April 15, 1985

A federal judge in Portland will hear arguments in a 3-year-old lawsuit that challenges a massive federal document governing chemical spray efforts to eradicate the gypsy moth. If the plaintiffs convince the judge that the government’s environmental impact statement is inadequate, all states --including California and numerous gypsy moth-infested East Coast states--may be prohibited from proceeding with plans to use synthetic chemical insecticides to control gypsy moths. The lawsuit was filed in April, 1982, by Citizens for the Safe Control of Gypsy Moths after the Oregon Agriculture Department authorized aerial spraying of the chemical insecticide Sevin to fight an infestation of gypsy moths in Salem. Other environmental groups later joined the lawsuit against the state agriculture department, the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Department of Agriculture.