Pesticide Ordinance TUESDAY 3/22 12:30pm

Hello All.

Just a quick reminder that the Oakland Public Works
committe will be revisiting the previously tabled
discussion on the proposed pesticide ordinance, which
would allow them to use herbicides as a measure to
prevent wildfires in the Oakland hills. Please come
out to address your concerns to city officials.

The Public Works meeting will held be tomorrow,
Tuesday, March 22, 2005, at 12:30pm at Oakland City
Hall, Hearing Room 1. And the proposal will be brought
before the City Council April 5, 2005, at 7pm (6pm for
seating, and to sign up to speak. Free parking in the
lot immediately behind City Hall - write which meeting
you attended on parking receipt)

At the meeting we expect to hear from Professor Tyrone
Hayes, a UC Researcher specializing in frogs, who is
an herbicide expert, called upon just last week as an
expert witness in the Minnesota hearings about banning
the use of the herbicide Atrazine. He is also a
concerned Oakland hills resident, and since there has
been a glaring lack of experts speaking to this
proposal, he is an important voice on this issue.

If this ordinance passes it would further erode the
city’s nearly decade long ban on pesticides on public
lands, which is being revealed as more and more of a
fraud with its far reaching list of exemptions. This
list doesn’t include the regular pesticide use by
EBMUD, UC, and the East Bay Regional Parks District,
nor Caltrans’ widespread dousing alongside freeways,
and near the Oakland Zoo. In addition to the
dishonesty of the “ban”, the city and these agencies
do not display the public notices required by
Proposition 65, which warn people of potential harmful
exposure, even though some of the chemicals that are
being used by the city and these agencies are listed
as Proposition 65 chemicals.

The proposal also represents a misuse of funds
assessed from the Wildfire Prevention Assessment
District (WPAD), by redirecting it for restoration
purposes. Among the list of plants to be treated are
several invasive non-native plants which do not pose a
real fire danger. The WPAD can hardly be interpreted
as concern for fire safety, when taking into account
the careless mismanagement of funds by city officials
which resulted in devastating budget cuts to the Fire
Department, which is and should be ultimately
responsible for such matters.

This proposal is presented as a quick fix, but the
truth is that all options for vegetation management
and fire prevention require maintenance, even the use
of pesticide would require repeated applications. It
is a poor solution to the threat of wildfires, and
there are countless, far more effective, non-toxic
alternatives to using poison. Many of these
alternatives have been presented to city officials,
and have been ignored, along with the toxicological
profiles of the pesticides in question, which East Bay
Pesticide Alert gave to city officials when this
ordinance was first brought before the public back in
January, and which was in the hands of every city
council member by mid-February. These documents also
contributed to the city attorney’s recent insistance
on an Environmental Impact Review.

For more information, including the toxicological
profiles, please visit our web site at
eastbaypesticidealert.org, or contact me here or at
(510) 444-0192, or contact Maxina Ventura, Chronic
Effects Researcher, at (510) 895-2312
beneficialbug [at] netzero.net for further dialogue.

Thanks for your support in the fight against toxics. I
hope to see some of you at the meetings.

Be well,
Isis