Judge won't lift ban on pesticide use near streams

By Jeff Barnard
The Associated Press

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Claiming economic hardship, CropLife America, a pesticide-manufacturers trade organization, and others asked U.S. District Judge John Coughenour in Seattle to drop his January order while the case is heard by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

That order has the effect of requiring farmers to refrain from spraying certain pesticides near salmon streams. Moreover, garden stores must notify consumers of the dangers to fish of certain pesticides used in home gardening until the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) certifies they are safe for salmon.

Coughenour found that CropLife and the others had failed to raise any new legal arguments and that the financial losses suffered by pesticide makers and others were not relevant to the legal issues in the injunction.

The judge had sharp criticism for EPA, the defendant in the original case brought by environmental groups.

"If EPA had expended as much effort in compliance with the ESA (Endangered Species Act) as it has expended in resisting this action, the lawsuit might have been unnecessary," he wrote.

Heather Hansen of Washington Friends of Farms and Forests, one of the intervenors in the case, said they did not expect the judge to drop his injunction but were encouraged that the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had put the case on a fast track. In the meantime, she said there has been widespread discussion among pesticide users about the new buffers, and "everybody is doing their best to comply."

But environmental groups are concerned that the point-of-sale notifications warning urban users not to use the pesticides near the streams are not being posted. In one survey, only two out of 20 stores checked in the Seattle area had posted the notifications, according to Patti Goldman, an Earthjustice lawyer representing environmental groups.

Seattle Times staff reporter Hal Bernton contributed to this story.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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