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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (March 9, 1977)
Environmental footnotes Court decision bars use of 2, 4, 5-T in forest By E G. WHITE-SWIFT Environmental Editor BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD: U S. District Court Judge Otto Skopil Jr. has ruled that a Siuslaw National Forest en vironmental impact statement on herbicide use is inadequate. The decision, released in Port land Monday, bars the use of any herbicides containing 2, 4, 5-T or similar compounds (including Sil r vex) until Siuslaw officials present a satifsactory environmental im pact statement. Skopil s decision was highly critical of the forest service's discussion of alterna tives to spraying and potential im pacts of the sprays that contain TCDD or dioxin. He ruled the Sius law actions violated provisions of the National Environmental Pro tection Act of 1969. Skopil said the decision does l not aftect areas outsiae ine 620,000 acre national forest that straddles the coast range from Til lamook to Reedsport, nor is the decision a comment on the safety of the chemicals. However, late T uesday, the req ional forester for the Facific Northwest, Ted Schlapfer, an nounced that herbicide 2, 4, 5-T use on forest land under the juris diction of the U S Forest Service will be suspended In addition. Gov. Bob Straub has named a committee to inves tigate the effects of 2, 4, 5-T and report to him by March 21. Named to Straub's committee were George Streisinger, professor of biology at the University; Frank Dost, agriculture chemistry pro fessor at Oregon State University; Warren Westgarth, laboratory and research administrator for the Oregon Department of Environ mental Quality, and Virgil Boekelheide, chemistry professor at the University. Last week the governor said he would not stop herbicide spraying on state-owned forest lands, be cause contracts had already been awarded or were about to be awarded In an unrelated herbicide ac tion, a group of southern Lane County rural residents concerned about the use of Silvex on Bureau of Land Management forest lands in Lane County has formed the Alliance for Better Land Manage ment (ABLM). ABLM has scheduled a "citizens' public hear (GREEN ON YELLOW) 100% PRE-SHRUNK COTTON ALL SIZES Campus Delivery 895-4789 ANYTIME! When do you say Budweiser? □ When I’m thinking about girls. □ When I’m trying to meet girls. □ When I’m wondering where in the world all the girls are. Actuary, anytime’s the right time to say Budweiser. And when you do, you’ve really said it all! KING Of BEtSS • /MtHEUSER BOSCH IBC. • ST. LOUIS ing on nerDiciae use in Lane County” Thursday night at 7 in the Cottage Grove High School lib rary Area residents that have ex perienced herbicide-related prob lems or have questions concern ing the use of aerial sprays have been invited to the meeting A presentation is planned to de monstrate how the toxic residue of Silvex, TCDD, breaks down into the environment. The herbicide ruling which bans 2, 4. 5-T on the Siuslaw was the resolution of a court action filed last spring by Citizens Against Toxic Sprays (CATS, a coalition of Lane County residents), the Oregon Environmental Council, and the Hoedads, a tree-planting cooperative “CATS members have been try ing for three years, at their own expense, to make the forest ser vice consider alternatives to her bicides," says CATS attorney Bruce Anderson It is unfortunate that citizens have to resort to the UUUIlo IU« lonui, uui o enow oa tremely fortunate that the courts are there The next stop in CATS' eflorts to ban the use of 2, 4, 5-T her bicides is the state capital in Salem A special hearing of the House Environment and Energy Committee is scheduled tonight at 7 to consider a request from CATS to introduce legislation banning 2, 4, 5-T in the state CATS will attempt to persuade the commit tee to introduce their bill before the legislature The CATS bill states "no person shall apply, use, formulate, de liver, sell or offer for sale 2, 4, 5-T or any other pesticide which con tains TCDD or is capable of pro ducing TCDD upon pyrolysis (burning).-' RAIN MAKER HERE TODAY: Tom Bender, co-editor of Ram Magazine, a Portland-based magazine of Appropriate Tech nology. will speak today at 12:30 in the Forum Room Bender was a member of the Office of Energy Research and F'anning (under Tom McCall) which put together a pacesetting report on energy resources, enti tled "Transition Bender has been involved with the Farallones Institute in California, and wrote the "Environmental Design Primer Bender's talk on appropriate technologies and alternative life styles is sponsored by the ASUO environmental action group, the Survival Center Bill adds time, grants releases on aerosol ban SALEM (AP) — Oregon mer chants could sell some stocks of banned aerosol sprays until July under a bill passed today by the Oregon Senate and sent to the House SB-500, approved by a 22-7 vote, would allow sales until July 1 of aerosols with fluorocarbons that were on hand as of last Tues day, when a law banning such sales took effect The measure also exempts from the ban fluorocarbon sprays that are used In installing and maintaining electronic, telephone and dental equipment. The legislature already has ex empted medical sprays from the ban, which was passed by the 1975 legislature Gov Bob Straub signed the medical exemption into law last month. Sen John Powell, D-Halsey, said the latest bill is needed to aid small retailers who are confused about what products were ban ned. He said the state has done “a lousy job" of telling merchants what sprays were banned, and that fluorocarbons would be re leased into the atmosphere even if the banned sprays were thrown into garbage dumps. Some scientists believe fluorocarbons damage the ozone layer that screens out radiation in the earth's atmosphere. Passage came after 16 to 13 defeat of a motion by Sen. f rank Roberts, D-Portland, to return the bill to committee with orders to de lete the sales extension He said it would reward mer chants who have kept forbidden sprays on hand while punishing those that strictly complied with the law and discarded them Oregon is the first state to out law fluorocarbon aerosol sales.
