Assembly Bid to Slow Chemical Phaseout Dies : Agriculture: Oxnard Republican’s resolution is rejected. Farmers fear effective alternatives are not being developed fast enough.

An Assembly resolution to aid strawberry growers using methyl bromide failed this week, but it called attention to the debate over the planned phaseout of the fumigant, Assemblyman Nao Takasugi’s office said Friday.

The resolution by the Oxnard Republican urged the federal government to slow the phaseout of methyl bromide, which has been identified as a potential ozone-depleting agent.

A toxic gas that purges fields of disease and insects before crops are planted, methyl bromide will be outlawed nationwide in 2001. Some farmers, however, worry that scientists are not developing cheap and effective alternatives fast enough to replace the widely used gas.

Despite arguments from farm lobbyists, Takasugi’s colleagues on the Assembly’s Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee voted down his resolution this week.

The vote came after a number of measure opponents, including an almond grower and a Santa Cruz strawberry grower, testified on organic methods of controlling disease and bugs.

“Our whole point is that the pesticide is being phased out for a very good reason,” said Anne Schonfield, spokeswoman for the San Francisco-based Pesticide Action Network. “We should be promoting alternatives because they are safer, they don’t destroy the environment and they are much healthier for the soil.”

Committee staff member Arnie Peters said the wording of the resolution lessened its chances of passage. The resolution called for U. S. Environmental Protection Agency officials to postpone the phaseout, when they are the agency required by the federal Clean Air Act to remove methyl bromide from the market.

“Memorializing the EPA to do something that’s illegal just wouldn’t get you very far,” Peters said.

Julia King, a spokeswoman for Takasugi, said the assemblyman was not surprised that his resolution was killed and he has no plans to try again.

“Our decision was that we pretty much knew it wasn’t going to pass, but we thought it needed to be raised as an issue,” King said. “It’s a big concern for farmers. We had heard so many rumblings about it.”

Rex Laird, executive director of the Ventura County Farm Bureau, said all of the county’s major strawberry growers use methyl bromide to enhance their yield. Strawberries are grown on about 5,500 acres in Ventura County and are the county’s No. 2 crop after lemons.

For decades, methyl bromide has been used to prepare soil for planting. The gas is injected into the earth beneath huge tarps meant to prevent the pesticide from dissipating in the wind.

In September, 1992, about a dozen people living in an Oxnard subdivision became ill, complaining of difficulty breathing and irritated eyes, after the gas escaped from a nearby strawberry field.

The substance is also used to rid buildings of termites and other pests, and residents who return to their homes too soon after the application can become sick or even die.

In the fields, growers are required to take precautions to limit farm workers’ exposure to methyl bromide. California Strawberry Commission spokeswoman Teresa Thorne said the industry tightened restrictions last year, calling for the fumigant to be buried deeper in the soil under heavier tarps.

Taking methyl bromide off the market could mean a 40% reduction in crop yield for strawberry growers, Thorne said. To prevent such a dramatic drop in production, the strawberry commission has delved deeply into researching alternatives.

One method being investigated involves plowing cauliflower and broccoli under the soil’s surface, where the decaying vegetables might release a naturally occurring chemical that does the work of methyl bromide, Thorne said.