I found this article and it scares me to death. The chemical they are talking about is "Sevin".
:shocked:
:shocked: Group files complaint over oyster pesticide
Environmentalists: Agency failed to probe carbaryl's effects
N.S. NOKKENTVED THE OLYMPIAN The state violated federal environmental law when it approved the use of an aquatic pesticide to protect oyster beds, an environmental group contends.
Washington Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility has filed a complaint saying the Washington Department of Agriculture failed to conduct required studies on the effects of carbaryl before approving its use by commercial oyster farms on state tidelands.
The Department of Agriculture disagrees and asserts it has made an "unreasonable adverse effects determination," said Ted Maxwell, program manager for the department's pesticide registration services.
Long battle
The complaint filed with the federal Environmental Protection Agency is the latest twist in a long, see-saw battle over the use of carbaryl in the oyster beds of Willapa Bay and Grays Harbor.
Oyster growers say the chemical is vital to their operation.
Environmentalists say carbaryl has no place in sensitive marine waters where it also kills crab and juvenile fish.
Thurston County Superior Court Judge Paula Casey ruled in July that the economic effects on the oyster industry outweighed the environmental effects of the chemical. Her ruling overturned a stay on the chemical issued by the Pollution Control Hearings Board.
PEER contends that the issue is grounded in the Agriculture Department's use of a loophole in federal pesticide law. The law allows approval of "special local needs" permits. But that law requires the state to show that the chemical would have "no unreasonable adverse effects on the environment," said Lea Mitchell, director of PEER's Washington field office.
A public records search of EPA files conducted earlier this year turned up no evidence that Agriculture made such a determination, Mitchell said. Yet the department has approved the use of carbaryl on state tidelands by commercial oyster farms since 1976, she said.
Agriculture disagreed.
"We just feel we did" make a determination, Maxwell said.
Last year, a federal court ruling required the state Department of Ecology to issue a federal pollution permit for continued use of the chemical in tidelands. Environmentalists appealed the Ecology permit to the pollution board, which issued a stay of this year's chemical application.
Ecology defended the permit.
"We continue to believe we wrote a balanced permit," spokeswoman Sandy Howard said.
Casey's ruling overturned the board's stay, allowing oyster growers to apply the pesticide this summer.
The whole case will come before the Pollution Control Hearings Board in February.
Oyster farmers spread about 3 tons of carbaryl across 800 acres of oyster beds to control ghost shrimp, which burrow into the bottom and disturb the sediments, smothering the oysters.
Carbaryl is a general pesticide that can be dangerous to salmon, sturgeon, coastal cutthroat trout, Dungeness crabs and other marine animals. Washington is the only state where carbaryl is allowed to be sprayed on aquatic tidelands, Mitchell said.
Alternatives exist, but they're expensive.
Bill Taylor, president of Shelton-based Taylor United shellfish company, said the chemical is vital to oyster growers. Carbaryl is the only way to raise oysters profitably. Losing carbaryl could put some oyster growers out of business, he said.
"It would take very little to push some of them over the edge," Taylor said.
But Mitchell is concerned about the public image that growers have to rely on pesticides to raise oysters in the otherwise clean waters of Willapa Bay and Grays Harbor.
Eelgrass that once covered the tidelands and discouraged the shrimp was removed when commercial oyster operations replaced native oysters with Japanese oysters, Mitchell said. Natural shrimp predators, such as sturgeon, have decreased in numbers in recent years.
Instead of supporting the use of chemicals, the state should subsidize a transition to more natural "integrated pest management," Mitchell said.
"The state should support development of sustainable aquaculture."
N.S. Nokkentved covers the outdoors for The Olympian. He can be reached at 360-754-5445 and at nnokkent@ olympia.gannett.com.
On the Web
Washington Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility:
www.peer.org/washington/
United States Environmental Protection Agency:
www.epa.gov
Washington Department of Agriculture:
www.wa.gov/agr/default.htm
Washington Department of Ecology:
www.ecy.wa.gov
Careful of Store-bought Oysters!
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