Pesticide Cut Sought for Ventura County

Environmental watchdogs called Wednesday for a drastic reduction in pesticide use in Ventura County agriculture, saying current practices continue to put farm workers, schoolchildren and residents at risk of toxic exposure.

A report issued by the Wishtoyo Foundation, a county-based nonprofit environmental group, concludes that regulators have not done enough to shield schools and homes from pesticide exposure, prevent agricultural chemicals from seeping into public waterways or eliminate pesticides proven to be the most dangerous.

The report noted that in 2001, Ventura County was California’s 10th-most productive agricultural county. But it was the ninth-biggest pesticide user of the state’s 58 counties and the sixth-biggest user of so-called bad actor pesticides -- those known to cause cancer, contaminate groundwater or trigger birth defects and developmental problems.

Community leaders and environmental activists gathered in Oxnard to share the findings.

That group included the state’s newly appointed secretary of environmental protection, Terry Tamminen, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., one of the nation’s most prominent conservation attorneys and among those helping to shape environmental policy for Gov.-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger. Both pledged to press concerns raised in the report with the incoming governor.

“This is a critical effort to address ... an absolutely horrific crisis,” said Kennedy, who attended the news conference in his capacity as president of the Waterkeeper Alliance, which works to clean up U.S. waters.

“Unfortunately, no government agency out there is responsible for examining these impacts,” Kennedy said. “But they are happening and they are imposing a cost on the people of Ventura County.”

The report comes at a time when Ventura County farmers have reported decreased pesticide use. Ventura County usage dropped from 7.1 million pounds in 2000 to 6.4 million pounds in 2001, according to state records. State officials are set today to release a report on 2002 pesticide use.

In addition, farm officials said local growers have for years been moving toward less toxic pest-killing remedies and noted that Ventura County is a nationwide leader in the use of environmentally friendly biological controls to battle weeds and bugs.

“We have more in place [to reduce chemical dependence in agriculture] than any other county in California,” said Susan Johnson, pesticide deputy for Ventura County’s agricultural commissioner. “Growers in this area are leading the band ... in reduced-risk pesticide practices. California leads the nation, and Ventura County literally leads California in visionary agricultural practices.”

Environmental activists said Wednesday that those numbers could be deceiving. They said they continued to be troubled by reliance in local agriculture on some of the most toxic pesticides, noting in the report that six of the seven most commonly used chemicals between 1995 and 2000 were considered acute poisons by the EPA.

The report noted, for example, increased use of the controversial soil fumigant methyl bromide between 1995 and 2000, in large part because of its heavy use in the county’s rapidly expanding strawberry industry.

The chemical, long targeted for elimination because it is highly toxic and depletes the Earth’s ozone layer, is being phased out and is set to be banned outright by 2005. But activists said they were concerned that it would be replaced by highly toxic alternatives.

Mati Waiya, founder and executive director of the Wishtoyo Foundation, said his concerns extended to the disproportional effect pesticides may be having on children, farm workers and other vulnerable populations. But he said the concerns also extended to neighboring schools and residences.

“We are the ones who suffer when they use dangerous chemicals,” Waiya said. “It’s not just agricultural workers. It’s our children and schools. It’s our neighborhoods.”

The report provided several recommendations for addressing pesticide-related concerns, including greater regulatory oversight, an ongoing study on farm worker health and the creation of wider buffer zones. Activists said more must also be done to ensure that environmental agencies and other regulatory groups are trying their utmost to reduce the risk of chemical exposure and start moving toward the elimination of the most dangerous pesticides.

“It you look at the regulators, this is not a priority to them,” said Ventura attorney and report co-author Mary Haffner. “We must as members of the community come together and demand that these chemicals be drastically reduced.”