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I find some hope for the future of our planet in the emergence of millions of unconnected environmental and social movements. The leaderless Anarchy of this mass phenomenon and its macro scale means that its cells will not be centrally controlled or turned aside by profit motives. It seems to be a genuine grass roots response to the global threat which our planet faces. —Paul Hawken
Feds: Common Pesticides Jeopardize salmon survival
By JEFF BARNARD
The Associated Press
August 14, 2008
GRANTS PASS, Ore. — Three pesticides commonly used on farms and orchards throughout the West are jeopardizing the survival of Pacific salmon, the federal agency in charge of saving the fish from extinction has found.
Under the settlement of a lawsuit brought by anti-pesticide groups and salmon fishermen, NOAA Fisheries has issued a draft biological opinion that found the way chlorpyrifos, diazinon and malathion get into salmon streams at levels high enough to kill salmon protected by the Endangered Species Act.
The chemicals interfere with salmon's sense of smell, making it harder for them to avoid predators, find food, and even find their native spawning streams.
Banned from many household uses, tens of millions of pounds of the chemicals are still used throughout the range of Pacific salmon on a wide range of fruits, vegetables, forage crops, cotton, fence posts and livestock to control mosquitoes, flies, termites, boll weevils and other pests, according to NOAA Fisheries.
Jim Lecky, head of the office of protected resources for NOAA Fisheries Service, said his team has until a court-imposed deadline of Oct. 31 to work with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to find new ways to safely use the chemicals.
Lecky would not speculate whether the pesticides might ultimately be banned, but acknowledged that scientists have found that even with careful use under current guidelines, the chemicals are finding their way into streams at levels harmful to salmon.
The chemicals are the first of 37 that NOAA Fisheries and EPA must evaluate by 2012 under terms of a settlement reached last week in a lawsuit brought by Northwest Coalition Against Pesticides and the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, which represents California commercial salmon fishermen.
A total of 28 species of Pacific salmon are classified as threatened or endangered from overfishing, dams, logging, grazing, urban development, pollution, irrigation, misguided hatchery practices and other threats.
Lecky said he could not say where pesticides rank in the threats to salmon, but eliminating the harm from pesticides would boost efforts to save them.
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Pesticides Remain In Ground Water Long After Initial Applications
July 3rd, 2008
Scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)—in a study funded by the USGS National Water Quality Assessment Program (NAWQA)—investigated the presence of select pesticides and their degradation products in ground water. Degradation products are the chemicals that remain after a pesticide breaks down chemically. Groundwater—quite, simply water that comes from the ground—is used as drinking water and to irrigate crops to grow the food we eat. As a matter-of-fact, one-half of all US drinking water comes from ground water.
The four sites selected for the study were located in Maryland, Nebraska, California, and Washington. All four locations chosen for the study are considered agricultural landscapes and were selected for “variability in overall land use, crops grown, climate, agricultural practices, irrigation, geohydrologic—the earth’s water—settings, and redox conditions.” Redox—or oxidation reduction—is the process in which one substance or molecule is reduced and another oxidized.