Jun 19, 2008 7:46 pm US/Pacific
State Drops Plan For Bay Area Moth Spraying
SACRAMENTO (CBS 5 / AP / BCN) ―
State and federal officials Thursday abruptly suspended California's aerial spraying program to combat the crop-eating light brown apple moth in the Bay Area and other urban locations, after months of protests, lawsuits and media scrutiny over its unclear impacts on the environment and human health.
CBS 5 Investigates had previously reported that the pheromone pesticide spraying program may not work and that the moth is not a threat to crops.
State Secretary of Food and Agriculture A.G. Kawamura, apparently in reaction to the growing public pressure, announced that all plans to send up planes to spray pheromones to fight the moth in densely populated urban areas throughout the state were canceled.
"I know there's concern out there and we want to be able to address that," Kawamura told reporters Thursday afternoon. "Our focus is to use the technology that has moved progressively forward."
Instead of spraying, U.S. Department of Agriculture spokesman Larry Hawkins said scientists would release sterile moths in 2009 to target the invasive pest, keeping it from reproducing by rendering its eggs useless.
In a letter to agriculture officials, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said the effort to develop a mass sterile insect colony was a "worthy accomplishment."
Breeding the sterile moths will cost about $37 million annually, just half the cost of the aerial sprays, said John Connell, the state agency's director of plant health test prevention services.
Aerial spraying would still be used in rural agricultural areas that are inaccessible by road. Also, sticky traps and twist ties containing the pheromone would continue to be installed on plants and fences in residential neighborhoods or near fields, Hawkins noted.
Kawamura said sterile moths have been a part of the state's plans for more than a year, and that new science - not environmental concerns - prompted the change in direction.
But politicians from Monterey to Sonoma, as well as a broad coalition of anti-spray activists, swiftly claimed the decision as their own, hard-won triumph.
"Ever since this thing came out I always thought it was a public disaster," said U.S. Rep. Sam Farr, D-Calif. "The spraying started and people just went nuts. It became the lightening rod for protests and that put the whole program at risk."
About 600 people complained of feeling sick when planes applied the first round of spraying of the pheromone pesticide Checkmate in Monterey and Santa Cruz counties last fall.
The two counties and an environmental group sued the state, raising concerns about the pesticide's effects on human and ecological health. They contended Kawamura broke state law by authorizing the aerial campaign without the benefit of environmental review.
The state had claimed it was an emergency, arguing that the moth was a threat to California agriculture and that it had to be eradicated immediately, so there was no time to conduct environmental impact tests.
In addition, state environmental health experts said the illnesses reported after the first round of spraying couldn't conclusively be linked to efforts to eradicate the dime-sized Australian pest.
But in recent months, judges in Santa Cruz and Monterey halted plans to respray those counties pending results of environmental impact reports. Meantime, when state officials announced a plan to start spraying in August over 7 million Bay Area residents — the reaction was outrage.
Over the past eight weeks, concerned citizens, lawmakers and experts voiced loud opposition, filing petitions and lawsuits.
On Thursday, groups representing hundreds of residents across Northern California said the decision was proof their protests had worked.
"Wahoo! This is a landmark victory for the public," said David Dilworth, executive director of the Carmel-based Helping Our Peninsula's Environment. "People had to spend thousands and thousands of hours of high level work to get a bureaucracy to do the obviously moral choice."
The insect, which federal officials said threatens more than 2,000 varieties of California plants and crops, was first spotted in the state in March 2007 and has infested 10 counties stretching from north of San Francisco to Santa Barbara.
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