Potential for harm.

Byline: Susan Palmer The Register-Guard

Local retailers are mostly failing to inform shoppers about hazards to salmon posed by some pesticides, despite a court order to do so.

In April, the Environmental Protection Agency sent thousands of stores in Washington, Oregon and California a letter and warning labels to be posted in front of common products that kill weeds and insects. Only two of eight stores in the Eugene area are actually displaying the light blue labels, but an EPA spokeswoman says the agency has no plans to enforce the court-ordered signs.

"We've individually mailed the tags and a letter explaining them, but we don't have enforcement authority," EPA spokeswoman Enesta Jones said.

Corporate spokesmen for the stores that should be displaying the labels said they were surprised to learn about them when contacted about it this week.

"We're working on this; we're looking into it," said Fred Meyer spokeswoman Melinda Merrill.

At Home Depot, store managers were willing to comply but unclear about exactly what the court order mandated, said public relations manager Kathryn Gallagher.

So far the blue signs are on display at just two area retailers, True Value Hardware and the Wal-Mart on Green Acres Road.

The labels, slightly larger than a credit card, say: "SALMON HAZARD: This product contains pesticides that may harm salmon or steelhead. Use of this product in urban areas can pollute salmon streams."

Here's what the EPA wrote to retailers in April: "Accordingly, we ask that you display the warnings in your establishments in a manner that will be highly visible to persons who might purchase these products. Placing the warnings as shelf tags with the affected products is one means by which this could be accomplished."

At True Value and the Green Acres Wal-Mart, the warnings were posted below some, but not all, products with the offending chemicals and in some cases they were posted below products whose ingredients aren't on the EPA list.

The warnings were missing entirely from the pesticide shelves at Jerry's Home Improvement Center, Home Depot, Gray's Garden Center, and the Fred Meyer, Target and Wal-Mart stores on West 11th Avenue in Eugene.

It's the second time in two years that a judge has ordered that shoppers in urban areas be warned about the potential for harm from seven specific chemicals that are commonly used to kill bugs and weeds.

The order came out of a 2002 lawsuit against the EPA by environmental groups who faulted the agency for approving the use of dozens of chemicals without consulting the National Marine Fisheries Service about their potential to harm threatened or endangered species.

In that case, Washington District Judge John Coughenour required that urban shoppers in Oregon, Washington and California be educated about the dangers that seven of the pesticides pose.

The first effort to post warning labels was orchestrated by the pesticide industry group CropLife, who sent out letters and labels in 2004 to retailers. Only a few of thousands of stores complied by posting the warnings

In October, Coughenour told the EPA to do a better job of communicating with the retailers. The result: the April letter.

The seven chemicals that require point-of-sale warnings come in products such as Weed-B-Gon and Round-Up. After they've been applied, rain and sprinklers wash the chemicals into storm drains that carry them directly into streams and rivers.

But not all of Weed-B-Gon or Round-Up products have the offending chemicals in them, and the EPA warning label doesn't tell shoppers which chemicals to watch out for.

"It's very disappointing to us," said Aimee Code, water quality coordinator with the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides, who joined the Washington Toxics Coalition and the Pacific Coast Federation of Fisherman's Associations in the original lawsuit. "The EPA had the opportunity to get good information out and they failed," she said.

The EPA for its part has fulfilled its legal obligation, agency spokeswoman Jones said.

"The latest court order did not impose any new requirements on anyone except EPA and that requirement was to mail the point of sale notifications with a letter to retailers," Jones wrote in an e-mail.

Instead, the environmental groups who filed the lawsuit have been doing some outreach themselves, Code said, with volunteers contacting store managers to help them figure out which products need the warning labels.

PROBLEM CHEMICALS

A court order required the EPA to warn consumers about common products that can harm endangered salmon and steelhead.

2,4-D: Herbicide kills broad-leaf weeds in products such as Preen, Bayer's All In One Weed Killer and Ortho's Weed-B-Gon; disrupts sex hormones in fish.

Carbaryl: Insecticide in products such as Sevin and Ortho's Bug Geta Plus; reduces egg production, fertilization and swimming speed in fish.

Diazinon: Insecticide that proved so toxic, the EPA banned its residential use in 2004.

Diuron: Insecticide in products such as Karmex; reduces chlorophyll production and aquatic plant growth.

Malathion: Insecticide in products such as Malathion Plus; deforms fish.

Triclopyr BEE: Herbicide in products such as Lily Miller Blackberry Brush Killer; disoriented swimming behavior, increased respiration rates and flared gills in fish.

Trifluralin: Herbicide in products such as Preen Weed Preventer; toxic to fish, causes skeletal abnormalities.

More information: Visit www.epa.gov/espp/wtc/ index.html and at the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides: pesticide.org.

- Environmental Protection Agency and the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides