Groups Protest New Guidelines on Fumigant

A year after successfully lobbying to expand buffer zones during the application of methyl bromide, a coalition of anti-pesticide groups rallied Monday to protest a decision to shrink those setbacks by as much as half for some small-field applications.

Against the backdrop of an elementary school bordered by the furrowed farmland of northeast Oxnard, coalition members criticized the state Department of Pesticide Regulation for reducing the buffer between smaller fields and homes from 100 feet to as little 50 feet while the toxic fumigant is being injected into the ground.

While the new guidelines won’t take effect on a large-scale basis until next summer when strawberry growers begin preparing fields for planting, anti-pesticide advocates say they believe the changes are politically motivated and are stepping up a larger campaign to enact tough regulations for methyl bromide use.

“I’m very disturbed that they’ve taken such a giant leap backward,” said Ventura resident Lynda Uvari, a member of Community & Children’s Advocates Against Pesticide Poisoning of Ventura County. “I am afraid for the children, families and farm workers who live, work and go to school near these fields. This must be stopped today; tomorrow might be too late.”

But an official with the state pesticide department said such claims are misleading, noting that regulators have dramatically increased buffer zones for fields of all sizes in recent years.

State officials agreed in October to shrink the buffer for one method of application in fields of 10 acres or less, and spokeswoman Veda Federighisaid they also agreed to expand setbacks by hundreds of feet for other application methods.

All of those decisions were based on scientific data generated by air-monitoring samples and other tests, she said. Those numbers are the only determining factor in deciding whether to adjust buffer zones.

“If they are going to accuse us of playing politics, why are we increasing buffer zones also?” Federighi said. “We’re making these decision based on scientific data; we’re not going out and polling people. There are parts of the government that do things based on polling, but this isn’t one of them.”

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David Buettner, the county’s chief deputy agricultural commissioner, said despite the new guidelines his office isn’t likely to reduce the buffer zones in “sensitive areas,” such as adjacent residential neighborhoods and schools.

“I don’t think there are a lot of areas where this will really cause any significant difference in what we are currently doing,” he said.

But anti-pesticide advocates fear the worst, expressing concern that growers will begin dividing their properties into smaller parcels so they can take advantage of the reduced buffer zones.

They also assailed state regulators for setting a 30-foot safety zone for field workers, fearing the buffer may not be wide enough to protect laborers from drifting pesticide vapors.

State officials said that buffer zone never changed, although some county agricultural commissioners misinterpreted guidelines distributed last year and believed the setback had increased to 100 feet.

Aside from the new guidelines, advocates worry about losing ground in a hard-fought struggle to reduce or ban the use of methyl bromide, an odorless fumigant used to cleanse the soil of insects, mites, rodents and weeds before planting.

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Championed for growers as potent pest killer, the pesticide is especially popular in the strawberry industry.

In California, a coalition of environmentalists and public health advocates have long pushed to restrict the use of the fumigant, which is poisonous to humans and even in small doses can cause headaches, vomiting, dizziness and damage to the central nervous system.

It was protests last year by east Ventura residents, who complained of being sickened by toxic pesticide fumes that drifted from a nearby strawberry field, that prompted state officials to begin considering extending buffer zones.

Combined with similar flare-ups in Watsonville and the Santa Ynez Valley, state regulators last November set a minimum setback of 100 feet for any methyl bromide application.

“We’re not making progress in protecting the people of California, we’re going backward,” said Bill Walker, statewide director of the Environmental Working Group. “It’s time for the people of California to stand up and say enough is enough.”

Walker, who was in Oxnard on Monday, said his organization is among four environmental groups that have sued the state, charging that government officials are endangering public health by failing to control the use of methyl bromide.

He contends that the recent move to shrink the buffer zone was orchestrated by Gov. Pete Wilson’s administration as a “last special favor” to the agricultural industry.

But he said he hopes Gov.-elect Gray Davis will choose to settle the lawsuit when he takes office by forcing the state Department of Pesticide to enact hard regulations for methyl bromide that could be enforced by lawmakers and subject to public scrutiny.

Currently the department governs methyl bromide use through broad guidelines enforced by county agricultural commissioners, Walker said.

“All they have are these guidelines they can change whenever they want,” he said. “The lawsuit would require them to adopt regulations that have the force of law.”