Lawsuit Challenges Herbicide Use in Klamath Basin
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Date:
Wed, 11 Dec 2002
08:59:07 -0500
From:
Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization: Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)
To: Paul Helliker <phelliker@cdpr.ca.gov>
Director, State of California, Department of Pesticide
Regulation
cc: Christine Whitman whitman.christine@epa.gov
Lawsuit Challenges Herbicide Use in Klamath Basin
PORTLAND, Oregon, December 10, 2002 (ENS) - Conservation organizations in Oregon and California have filed suit against federal and state officials over a permit allowing the Klamath Irrigation District to release an herbicide into the waters of the Klamath Basin. The lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) contends both agencies are legally obligated to consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) before granting the Klamath Irrigation District a pollution discharge permit to place known hazardous chemicals into the Klamath Basin.
Under a permit issued in March, the herbicide acrolein, which is known to kill fish at very low concentrations, can be applied in an area where endangered fish are present. The Endangered Species Act requires consultation before any federal permit can be issued or any federal money spent that might jeopardize an endangered species.
In authorizing the use of acrolein, the Oregon DEQ was acting in a federal government capacity, using federal money, and issuing a federal Clean Water Act permit, the suit charges.
"Either the EPA or its agent, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, should have consulted with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service regarding the risks of acrolein to the two federally endangered fish species in the upper Klamath Basin," said Cindy Deacon Williams of the conservation group Headwaters, Inc. "These fish were decimated during fish kills in the 1990s that resulted in the loss of 80 to 90 percent of the adult population. There's no room left for mistakes."
The conservation groups filing the lawsuit include Headwaters, the Oregon Natural Resources Council (ONRC) and the Northcoast Environmental Center.
The Klamath Irrigation District requested the permit from the DEQ after being notified on March 26, 2002 of conservationists' intent to sue if the district followed the EPA's legal advice and failed to obtain the federal permit. The district's canals drain into the Lost River, which flows onto the Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge in northern California, raising fears that endangered fishes and other wildlife species could be harmed.
The permit is valid through June 30, 2007 and allows the Klamath Irrigation District to apply an acrolein based herbicide into its irrigation system to kill unwanted aquatic vegetation. The herbicide is applied throughout the summer and fall irrigation season.
In a July 17, 2002 press release, the DEQ cautioned that "the chemical acrolein kills plant material on contact and, if breathed in large amounts, damages the lungs and can cause death."
"Measured in parts per billion, acrolein removes all oxygen from the water and suffocates all aquatic life it contacts," said Wendell Wood, southern Oregon field representative for the Oregon Natural Resource Council. "It is critical that the permit be formally reviewed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service."
"Because consultation [with the USFWS] was not undertaken, the agency responsible for protecting fish and wildlife was not given an opportunity to ensure permit conditions critical to the survival of endangered fish species were included," added Wood.
The Klamath Irrigation District was the first irrigation district in Oregon to be issued a Clean Water Act permit for aquatic herbicide applications. Since this permit was issued in July 2002, DEQ has issued nine other NPDES permits for the application of acrolein to irrigation districts around the state.
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