Pesticide use up 51% in Orange County

Alex Coolman

The use of pesticides in Orange County -- including some chemicals

considered highly toxic and carcinogenic -- increased dramatically during

the 1990s, according to a report released Wednesday by an environmental

group.

The report by Pesticide Action Network, a San Francisco nonprofit group,

is a comprehensive study of pesticide use across California, with data

broken down by region and by county.

Between 1991-98 in Orange County, the group concluded that use of a class

of pesticides known as “bad actors” increased by 51%.

The “bad actor” class of chemicals includes acute poisons, carcinogens,

reproductive or developmental toxins, neurotoxins and ground water

contaminants.

In Orange County, said Susan Kegley, a staff scientist for the group, the

most common pesticides are the fumigants methyl bromide, sulfuryl

fluoride and a soil treatment called metam sodium. All three are

considered “bad actors.”

The chemical mix, indicative of an area with many homes and only limited

agriculture, “reflects what Orange County is as it becomes more

urbanized,” Kegley said.

Orange County is hardly the heaviest California user of such substances.

That dubious honor was reserved for highly agricultural Kern County, in

which more than 8 million pounds of “bad actor” pesticides were used in

1998.

But Orange County has the distinction of using a good number of

particularly unhealthy pesticides.

“It’s a pretty nasty set of chemicals,” said Steve Orme, a data

specialist with Pesticide Action Network.

Despite what the numbers indicate, the application of pesticides is more

carefully monitored than it was in the past, said Dave Taylor, an

entomologist and safety director for the Southern California pest control

company Antimite, which has an office in Costa Mesa.

Antimite uses sulfuryl fluoride under the brand name Vikane as an

anti-termite fumigant, Taylor said. But he noted that the company’s

policies have evolved considerably since the old days of “spraying

everything and letting God sort it out,” he said.

“We’ve gotten a lot more technical in the application of treatments. We

make our standards a little higher than what might be required by the

state government, so that we have a cushion built in,” Taylor said.

The potential effect of pesticide application on water quality, once a

nonissue, is now something monitored closely by Antimite, Taylor said.

“We never take any rinses [from equipment cleaning] or waste material and

pour it down the drain,” because of concerns about contaminating the

watershed, he said.

This kind of awareness about the need to control pesticide application is

crucial, said Defend the Bay founding director and Newport Beach resident

Bob Caustin.

“[Pesticides are] a very serious problem, and very widespread,” he said.

“We over-apply tremendously because it’s cheap and convenient.”

Such convenience comes at a high price when rains and runoff from

irrigation carry pesticides downstream, he said.

“They don’t have any chance at all to break down. They end up hitting the

[bottom-dwelling] organisms and entering the food chain,” he said.

BY THE NUMBERS

* Total pounds of active pesticide ingredients applied in Orange County

in 1991: 1,262,263

* Total pounds of active pesticide ingredients applied in Orange County

in 1998: 2,113,112

* Total pounds of hazardous “bad actor” pesticides applied in Orange

County in 1998: 1,505,753

* 1998 ranking of Orange County against other California counties in

terms of overall pesticide use: 23

* 1998 ranking of Orange County against other California counties in

terms of “bad actor” pesticide use: 13