Growers grapple with pesticide rules.

Byline: Sherri Buri McDonald The Register-Guard

CORRECTION (ran 3/19/04): Weyerhaeuser Co.'s local spokesman is Mike Moskovitz. His name was misspelled in an article on pesticides Wednesday.

It's a crisp, sunny morning at Dorris Ranch, south of Springfield, and hazelnut grower Garry Rodakowski is blending a fungicide he'll spray to try to protect the historic orchard from eastern filbert blight.

First found in Lane County last summer, the blight is spreading, threatening Oregon's $23 million-a-year hazelnut industry.

Usually, Rodakowski would spray with chlorothalonil. But now, he's switched to a more expensive chemical.

He did that because of a recent sweeping but little-publicized federal court order that bans the use of cholorothalonil and dozens of other toxic pesticides along thousands of miles of salmon-bearing waterways in western Oregon, Washington and California.

The Dorris Ranch orchards are nestled in a crook of the Middle Fork of the Willamette River, home to threatened chinook salmon.

The order from U.S. District Court in Seattle throws a complicated layer of rules on farmers such as Rodakowski, plus timberland owners who spray to kill brush, and

homeowners who have riverfront property and use chemicals to kill weeds and insects.

The order bars spraying of 38 chemicals within 20 yards of listed waterways when the pesticide is applied at ground level, and 100 yards when sprayed from the air. In Lane County, hundreds of rivers and creeks that support chinook and coho salmon now must be protected from the pesticides.

But so far, authorities have made little effort to alert homeowners to the new ban. Many residents living along Mosby Creek in south Lane County, or along Fall Creek and Little Fall Creek in east Lane County probably have no idea the ban covers their local creek.

And there is virtually no effort to actually enforce the ban.

CropLife America, a trade group representing pesticide makers such as Bayer, Dow and Monsanto, is expected today to file an appeal and ask that the buffers be lifted.

CropLife argues the order irreparably harms growers, said Seema Mahini, a CropLife lawyer. A federal study estimates the buffers will force some producers to remove crops near streams, costing farmers in Oregon and Washington $100 million.

That's an exaggeration, environmental groups claim, because farmers can keep on farming using other chemicals and chemical-free substitutes.

Aimee Code, a water-quality coordinator at the Eugene-based Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides, said she hopes the ruling prompts farmers to use less-toxic methods. "If we're going to be growing within 20 yards of a river, we need to be thinking of how we're treating that specific area," she said.

But in most cases, the alternatives are less effective or more expensive, Mahini said.

In a twist, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency may side with CropLife in its appeal, and against environmental groups that sued to get the ban.

"The Department of Justice and federal government are still exploring their legal options," said Arty Williams, chief of the environmental field branch in the EPA's pesticides office.

The court order took effect Feb. 5, but many people still haven't heard about it.

Some property owners have spent recent weeks poring over maps trying to figure out if the order applies to their property.

"Who is even going to be able to figure this out to be able to enforce it?" said Ross Penhallegon, a horticulturist with the Lane County Extension Service. "Boy, that's a lot of streams," he added. "Who's even going to be out there looking around?"

Awareness among consumers probably will rise when court-mandated "salmon hazard" warnings appear by April 5 at lawn-and-garden stores in some cities, including Eugene and Springfield. The judge ordered the EPA to develop the warning for products with seven specific pesticides. The warning will state: "This product contains pesticides that may harm salmon or steelhead. Use of this product in urban areas can pollute salmon streams."

The EPA has developed a one-page notification, said Mahini, the CropLife America attorney. CropLife will make the notice available to retail outlets in urban areas, and retailers will decide how to distribute it to consumers, she said.

The court order stems from a lawsuit filed in 2001 by the Washington Toxics Coalition and other environmental and fishing groups, alleging that the EPA violated its responsibility to protect endangered and threatened fish under the Endangered Species Act. The court ordered the EPA to review the effects of certain pesticide ingredients on salmon.

The toxics group asked the judge to temporarily restrict the use of the chemicals until the review was over. The judge agreed, mandating the buffers.

At first, some observers thought the ruling would have little impact in Lane County.

But a look at the county-by-county maps recently posted on the Oregon Department of Agriculture Web site set them straight. The maps show myriad streams and creeks that feed into the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, plus myriad other Lane County waterways flowing into the Pacific Ocean.

"There's a whole page of streams in Lane County," Penhallegon said. "That was a real eye-opener."

First to be affected will be timber growers, grass-seed farmers, filbert growers and nurseries, said Bruce Pokarny, spokesman for the Oregon Department of Agriculture.

Timber giant Weyerhaeuser Co. will stop using two of the restricted chemicals, 2,4-D and Garlon 4, in the mix it sprays to kill blackberries and grass that choke out tree seedlings, spokesman Mike Moskowitz said. Using alternatives will cost about $13,000 more, he said.

Of Weyerhaeuser's 218,000 acres of timberlands in the Springfield area, about 500 acres are along salmon-bearing waterways, he said.

Some small growers are vulnerable to the added costs.

"In the hazelnut industry, you're lucky to make a profit every other year," said Rodakowski, who owns a 60-acre orchard in Vida and manages 160 acres for others, including Dorris Ranch's owner, the Willamalane Park & Recreation District.

Add "$100 to $150 an acre more in chemical expense, and sometimes you don't even have a profit per acre," he said. "It's not like we want to be out here spraying these chemicals." But "if you (grow hazelnuts) for a living, it's almost a necessity."

The new chemical he's using, although not on the court's list, is still a nasty product. Wearing a respirator, face shield, rubber apron, gloves and boots, Rodakowski on Tuesday poured a chemical powder into a 500-gallon tank of the sprayer hooked to his tractor.

He'll spend two days weaving between the rows of trees, spraying a fine toxic mist.

The orchards are closed until Friday, when the required waiting period is over.

For more information, visit www.oda.state.or.us.

LIST OF INGREDIENTS

Users of the following pesticide ingredients must leave buffer zones along salmon-bearing streams:

1,3-dichloropropene

2,4-D*

acephate

azinphos-methyl

bensulide

bromoxynil

carbaryl*

carbofuran

chlorothalonil

chlorpyrifos

coumaphos

diazinon*

diflubenzuron

dimethoate

disulfoton

diuron*

ethoprop

fenbutatin-oxide

lindane

linuron

malathion*

methamidophos

methidathion

methomyl

methyl parathion

metolachlor

metribuzin

naled

oxyfluorfen

pendimethalin

phorate

prometryn

propargite

tebuthiuron

triclopyr BEE*

trifluralin*

*Stores in some urban areas, including Eugene-Springfield, must post hazard warnings regarding these pesticides by April 5.

CAPTION(S):

Rodakowski pours a fungicide concentrate into a 500-gallon water tank to prepare for spraying.