The State - News from Dec. 16, 1988

Spraying of herbicides along highways in Northern California will be suspended while officials study the environmental effects of chemicals used to control vegetation, state officials said. Environmentalists who urged the state to prepare the environmental impact report called the decision a victory for the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund and other conservation organizations throughout California. The Sierra Club fund negotiated with Caltrans on behalf of the California Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides and the Mendocino Unified School District, which plans to build a school along California 1 in the path of the spray. “On balance, we are simply delighted. We’ve been after Caltrans for years to do an EIR (environmental impact report), and now they’ve agreed without the long legal battle we’d all hoped to avoid,” said Kristy Sarconi of the coalition.