Morning Star - Wilmington, N.C.
BRIAN FEAGANS, Staff Writer
December 13, 2000
The N.C. Pesticide Board voted Tuesday to prohibit timber companies from spraying forestry herbicides over water standing in wetlands or flowing through ditches.
The unanimous decision came in response to a request from Tommy Stevens, director of the N.C. Division of Water Quality. In July, he asked the Pesticides Board to join his staff in an investigation of spraying in the Green Swamp, which spreads out over north Brunswick County and southern Columbus County.
Water Quality inspectors had found wet sections of the swamp with telltale dead vegetation, indicating pesticide applications. Timber companies use the chemicals to kill plants that compete with pines for nutrients and sunlight.
Residents living on the edge of International Paper's 300,000- acre pine plantation in the swamp had expressed fears that plant- killing chemicals could flow out of a vast network of drainage ditches and into streams or even drinking wells.
International Paper officials have suspended all herbicide spraying in Southeastern North Carolina and are evaluating the way chemicals are applied. They say applications from helicopters and backpack sprayers have been safe and in compliance with labels approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
It is those very labels that state pesticide officials have called confusing and ambiguous. The guidelines for Arsenal and other common forestry herbicides ban spraying over open water but allow applications over swamps, puddles and other wet areas that by definition contain water.
"I think this provides a policy to operate with until the EPA comes out with a declaration saying we can't do this or they change the labels altogether," said Henry Wade, manager of pesticide environmental programs for the board.
The restriction won't apply in cases where less than a foot of water has gathered in a shallow depression for less than 30 days, the Pesticide Board ruled. Herbicides labeled as toxic to aquatic organisms don't qualify for the exemption, however.
Garlon 4, a popular forestry herbicide, is one such chemical that can't be sprayed in shallow depressions, Dr. Wade said. Arsenal, another of the widely used herbicides in the timber industry, would qualify, he said.
Water Quality spokesman Ernie Seneca said the division is still reviewing the language approved by the Pesticide Board and hasn't decided whether it satisfies their concerns.
Sheila Moore, who organized Concerned Citizens of Southeastern North Carolina with her sister earlier this year, said the board's action was too little, too late.
The restrictions will be nearly impossible to enforce and won't prevent the herbicides from percolating into groundwater, Moore said.
It's unclear how much land is sprayed with herbicides each year in North Carolina. A N.C. Forest Service survey documented 66,500 acres sprayed in 1997, but the actual number could be higher because not every user responded.
© 2000 Morning Star - Wilmington, N.C.. via Bell&Howell Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved
