Judge stiffens ruling on pesticide warning labels.

Byline: Susan Palmer The Register-Guard

Labels warning of the harm that pesticides may pose to endangered fish soon will appear in local garden and home center stores, thanks to a court order.

Washington District Judge John Coughenour told the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday to do a better job of informing the public that chemicals in popular products that kill weeds and insects may hurt salmon and steelhead.

The order follows previous decisions by Coughenour in a case that took the EPA to task for failing to consult with the National Marine Fisheries Service over the effects of dozens of approved pesticides on endangered and threatened fish. Coughenour's original ruling requiring a review of the chemicals' impact has been upheld by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

While the EPA conducts that review, use of the chemicals has been curtailed. For farmers, orchardists, golf course owners and others, the judge imposed buffer zones along waterways.

Because some of the chemicals also have been found in urban rivers and streams, the judge required that stores selling pesticides post notices informing their customers of the potential danger to fish.

Pesticides sprayed on lawns and gardens - to kill dandelions and aphids, for example - eventually run off into stormwater systems that empty into area waterways.

Coughenour first required the public warnings in a court order issued in January 2004, but he put a pesticide industry group - CropLife - in charge of the notification process, and few stores complied.

In a review of local retailers such as Home Depot and Wal-Mart conducted by The Register-Guard in July, only one of eight area stores had posted the warning signs.

Informal surveys conducted in San Francisco and Seattle by the activists who filed the suit against the EPA found few stores posting the warning labels, which read: "Salmon Hazard: This product contains pesticides that may harm salmon or steelhead. Use of this product in urban areas can pollute salmon streams."

The new order requires the EPA itself to send letters about the policy to retailers in urban areas with more than 50,000 people, and to provide the stores with a list of the chemicals and the products that contain them.

The Eugene-based Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides - a plaintiff in the case - hailed Monday's ruling because it will help shoppers understand potential problems in commonly available products.

"The reality is that people think that if they can buy it at the store, it's safe," said Aimee Code, a coalition spokeswoman.

"That's not how it's regulated. Now people are going to be able to make choices."

The EPA also must list the information on its Web site, and that's an improvement over the previous order, which sent retailers and consumers to a pesticide industry Web site that required online visitors to navigate through various industry promotional materials, Code said.

An EPA spokeswoman reached by phone said she didn't know how long it would take the agency to comply with the order or how difficult it would be to compile the list of products. In an e-mailed statement, the EPA said it is exploring its options in response to the ruling with the Department of Justice.

The chemicals of concern in urban areas are the herbicides 2,4-D; diuron; tricloper and trifluralin; and the insecticides carbaryl and malathion. Examples of products that contain them are Ortho's Weed B Gon, Sevin Bug Killer, Karmex and Crossbow.

Malathion, carbaryl and 2,4-D have been found in the Willamette River in tests conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey.

While the impact of small amounts of pesticides isn't well understood, in higher concentrations they can cause problems, according to government and university studies.

For example, malathion in large concentrations has been shown to deform some fish and has interfered with the reproduction of others.

The court-ordered warning to consumers applies to stores in Washington, Oregon and California in urban areas with more than 50,000 people.

The EPA also must consult with the plaintiffs in the case. They are: the Washington Toxics Coalition, the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides, the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations and the Institute for Fisheries Resources - in the development of the notices to retailers and must file a status report with the court within 60 days.