sust-mar: Urgent Action: Pesticide Bylaw under Threat

From: "Helen Jones" <hjones@chebucto.ns.ca>
To: "Sustainable-Maritimes" <sust-mar@chebucto.ns.ca>
Date: Tue, 23 Mar 2004 23:10:20 -0400
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____________________________________________________________________________
Urgent Action: Pesticide Bylaw under Threat

Send a letter to the mayor and councillors automatically on our website!
Please ask your friends and neighbours to do the same.

www.sierraclub.ca/atlantic

COMMENT IS URGENTLY NEEDED

Pesticide companies are lobbying the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) to
be allowed to regulate themselves and issue their own spray permits whenever
they want them.  Landscape Nova Scotia (LNS), the lobby group for lawn care
companies, is making a major move to take over the permit and lawn
inspection process under Pesticide Bylaw (P-800).  [Permit requests are
applications for exemptions to apply pesticides under the pesticide bylaw,
and are supposed to be rare occurrences.]

Hard as it is to believe, lawn care companies, some of whom have had a
history of repeated serious bylaw violations, want to be put in charge of
lawn inspections and issue permits to themselves whenever they choose!  This
wouldn't matter EXCEPT THAT HRM STAFF IS LISTENING and planning their staff
reports accordingly.  Council knows very little about this while discussions
between Landscape Nova Scotia, and HRM staff have been going on quietly for
months behind the scenes on how to put the fox in charge of the hen house.
Those who sell and use pesticides have high hopes; last summer, customers in
a local retailer were overheard being told, "Next year, there won't BE a
bylaw.”

What Industry is proposing to do and HRM is considering:

*HRM would let sprayers decide when pesticides are needed and then issue
spray permits to themselves whenever they choose to [only a small percentage
of these would be checked up on by Clean NS, and they might well approve of
over half of them].

*HRM would allow sprayers to say that posting signs and notifying nearby
residents is the responsibility of the resident - NOT THEIRS - so they can’t
be fined for failure to follow the rules of the bylaw.

*HRM proposes to let sprayers be the first ones to visit a property and be
the ones to educate residents (or fail utterly at this).  The critical role
of teaching about natural landscaping would be handled by those who are most
invested in pesticides and sales profits, and as the mountain of permit
requests show, are INCAPABLE of doing this well.  Some companies submitted
over 1100 requests for pesticide permits EACH last season.

*HRM would be behaving unfairly to organic landscapers and other smaller
companies who may not want to spend big dollars for IPM accreditation.  Both
groups would be less likely to be first on the site and therefore first to
influence the homeowner.

*HRM might allow Landscape NS to reject the wording in HRM’s printed
educational materials if LNS didn’t like the way it sounds.  Is this a veto
power for words like “precautionary” and “health protection”?

*HRM would let LNS keep all the records and data in their control, with no
independent check on the real ratio of “approved” to “refused” permit
requests.  Even the occasional audit would be conducted according to rules
the landscapers help determine.  Go figure.

*HRM would sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that could be legally
binding.

*HRM would build Industry’s “Integrated Pest Management”(IPM) into our
bylaw.  THIS IS A SYSTEM THAT RELIES ON PESTICIDES, and which is backed by
landscape lobby groups in Ontario and NS, and was rejected by the City of
Ottawa.  A BETTER IDEA: certified organic inspectors making permit decisions
(following national organic standards) would be much more likely to help us
create a pesticide-free community than if these decisions are made by spray
companies with “IPM certification” - a label industry bestows on itself.
The City of Ottawa describes IPM this way: “This is a position advocated by
Landscape Ontario, representing lawn care companies in Ontario, and involves
the application of pesticides for cosmetic purposes.  The City of Ottawa
does not use IPM on its own properties …”   June, 2003.

*HRM WOULD MAKE ALL THESE SWEEPING CHANGES WITHOUT ANY PUBLIC HEARINGS.
(Amendments to the bylaw require public hearings. But it may be possible for
the city to "farm out" the inspection/permit process to other agencies
without making an amendment to the bylaw. These changes go WAY beyond this,
however.)

  -Based on information in a Memorandum of Understanding (Feb 3, 2004)
signed by an officer of LNS (and owner of the Weed Man franchise).
=====================================

WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE:
If you are pesticide sensitive, or don’t want neurotoxic, immune-suppressing
insecticides such as organophosphates and carbamates (or
illegal herbicides) sprayed near you, tell the city that it is never a good
idea to put the ones to be regulated in charge of the regulating!  Some lawn
care companies told their customers last season, “Carbaryl (Sevin) is
organic” and that Diazinon is "organic" and won't hurt you.

A brief comment window exists for those with serious health issues. If you
want to protect yourself and your community, get your comments in now.  It
doesn’t have to be lengthy.  Writing both Halifax Regional Council and HRM
staff, means that if staff closes the comment window, Council will still
know how you feel. Staff Reports will go to Council on March 30, 2004, but
discussion may continue well after this.

ACTION *** ACTION *** Action *** ACTION *** ACTION

To send a letter, go to www.sierraclub.ca/atlantic  and choose the link
URGENT ACTION NEEDED Halifax Regional Municipality Pesticide Bylaw Under
Threat!!

Four Methods for Dealing with Chinch Bugs (without pesticides):

(1) Use a shop vacuum on the dead spot plus a one foot margin of healthy
grass around it.  According to David Slabotsky at the Wolfville Parks
Department, this removes all the adults, all the eggs, and all the nymphs
and is 100% effective.  No other treatment should be needed.
or
(2) Use water and/or soapy water on the area frequently (chinch bugs hate
this and usually leave).
or
(3) Use a beneficial nematode product (like Lawn Guardian) in the spring. Be
sure not to water it in; just mix them with moist soil or peat moss (and a
little more water) in a wheelbarrow and rake it into the soil surface (deep
into the grass). Use diatomaceous earth products in the Fall (when there are
more adult chinch bugs).
or
(4) Permanently prevent chinch bugs by deepening the soil under the lawn
with good garden loam and compost.  Do this with either repeated top
dressings - or for a quick fix - by digging up the lawn, adding 6"+ of good
rich soil, and reseeding with a "low-input" grass seed mix with a little
added (~5%) Dutch white clover seed.

Don't forget to MOW HIGH  (~ 2 1/2 - 3").

Charging a $10-$15 fee for anyone applying for a permit will help cover
overhead costs.

With chinch bug problem handled properly, there is no cost crisis in the
permit program.

Homeowners need to follow clear step-wise requirements for alternative
methods for pest problems, and report on their success with each of them,
before pesticides are ever considered.
Education on existing safe and effective methods is the key (and keep
feeding the soil).

Result -
Beautiful Lawn.
No problems.
No pesticides.

More information and individual Councillor’s emails at
http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Environment/RATE/



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