Oyster pesticide illegally approved

Washington State Department of Agriculture violated federal environmental law by repeatedly rubber stamping the use of a damaging aquatic pesticide, according to a complaint filed today by Washington Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.

Filed before the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the PEER complaint describes how WSDA has never conducted required studies on the adverse affects from the chemical carbaryl yet has approved its use on state tidelands by commercial oyster farms since 1976. Today, oyster farmers apply approximately three tons of the chemical across 1,000 coastal acres.

All records cited in this complaint were provided to PEER in response to a Freedom of Information Act request to U.S. EPA and public records requests made under RCW 42.17 to the Washington State Department of Ecology, the Washington State Department of Agriculture, and the Washington State Archives. As of September 30, 2002 PEER is still awaiting a complete response from U.S. EPA. Oyster farmers use the chemical to control ghost shrimp, a burrowing pest that drills through aquatic beds, disturbing the soils and smothering the oysters.

But carbaryl is a neurotoxin with well-documented adverse effects. It has been demonstrated to cause mortality in salmon, sturgeon, coastal cutthroat trout, Dungeness crabs, and other marine invertebrates. Washington State is the only state in the nation where carbaryl is allowed to be sprayed on aquatic tidelands.

WSDA has repeatedly invoked a loophole in the Federal Insecticide Fungicide and Rodenticide Act, the federal law regulating pesticides, by declaring the ghost shrimp problem a “special local need” that cannot be addressed by other means. However, FIFRA requires a state to demonstrate that a chemical has “no unreasonable adverse effects on the environment” before a special local needs registration can be granted. A public records search of EPA files conducted earlier this year turned up no documentation that WSDA ever made a “no unreasonable adverse effects” determination with regard to carbaryl.

“For more than twenty years WSDA has acted as a pesticide broker rather than an oversight agency” commented Washington PEER Director Lea Mitchell, who noted that WSDA has approved more than 300 special local needs registrations around the state. “Carbaryl is likely one of many pesticides that WSDA has illegally approved for use in aquatic areas. Washington PEER looks forward to their upcoming audit of the ‘special local needs’ registrations they have granted,” added Mitchell.

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Author Notes:

Taylor Kent contributes and publishes news editorial to http://www.1st-in-steaks.com. Great tips on buying top quality meats, steaks and seafood from the finest ranchers and butchers.