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ruling with major implications for the continued use of one of
California's most dangerous and heavily applied pesticides, a
superior court judge has ordered the state to adopt regulations
to protect the public from exposure to the fumigant methyl bromide.
 Judge
David A. Garcia ruled Thursday in favor of four environmental
groups Environmental Working Group, Friends of the Earth, Pesticide
Action Network and Pesticide Watch who filed suit last June against
the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR). The
decision marks a turning point in California environmentalists'
long battle against methyl bromide, a highly volatile and acutely
toxic biocide gas that routinely drifts from farm fields into
adjacent neighborhoods and school grounds.
Garcia
found DPR in violation of a 1989 state law requiring adoption
of clear and enforceable statewide regulations for methyl bromide
use by April of that year. Instead, DPR has only developed an
internal set of use "guidelines" conditions such as
the amount of the pesticide used per acre and the size of protective
buffer zones around application sites which are administered
by county agriculture commissioners and subject to change without
public notice.
Following
Garcia's decision, the next step is for the victorious plaintiffs
to draft an order for DPR to comply with the ruling, which include
setting a definite date by which the state must adopt regulations.
Environmental, labor and community groups will be allowed to
participate in the process of setting the regulations.
"Californians
have fought for more than 15 years for protection from methyl
bromide, but the state has repeatedly put the pesticide and agriculture
industries' profits before public health," said Lynda Uvari
of Ventura, a member of Pesticide Watch and a victim of methyl
bromide poisoning. "Now the court has ordered the state
to obey the law and protect the public. With a chemical this
dangerous, that must ultimately mean ending methyl bromide use."
Methyl
bromide is classified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
as a Category I toxic compound, a designation reserved for the
most dangerous substances. It is known to cause nerve damage
and birth defects in laboratory animals and even small doses
are harmful to the lungs, kidneys, eyes and skin.
As a
potent destroyer of the Earth's protective ozone layer, methyl
bromide is scheduled to be banned in the U.S. in 2005. The U.S.
deadline, previously set by international treaty for 2001, was
extended last year under a bill sponsored by now-retired U.S.
Rep. Vic Fazio of California.
Under
the state Birth Defects Prevention Act of 1984, it was twice
scheduled for earlier bans in California, but each time the agricultural
industry successfully lobbied the Legislature to extend the California
deadline. In the lawsuit, DPR argued unsuccessfully that the
1996 law extending the deadline superseded the 1989 law requiring
adoption of regulations. In 1998, farm-district legislators defeated
a bill by state Sen. Liz Figueroa of Fremont, then a member of
the Assembly, to ban the use of methyl bromide within 1,000 feet
of homes or schools.
"This
ruling is a long-awaited victory for Californians who continued
to demand protection even though DPR, the Legislature, Congress
and the Clinton Administration refused to listen," said
Mike Axline, an attorney with the Western Environmental Law Center
of Eugene, Ore., a public-interest law firm that represented
the environmental groups.
In California,
methyl bromide is injected into the soil before the planting
of strawberries, almonds, wine grapes and other crops. California
uses more methyl bromide than any other state, with more than
17 million pounds applied in 1995, much of it by Central Coast
strawberry growers. It is also widely used in Southern California
to fumigate buildings for insects.
In the
last two decades, at least 19 people have died in California
from exposure to methyl bromide in structural fumigation. More
than 1,600 have been poisoned and hundreds evacuated from homes
and schools after the toxic gas drifted from fields even when
applied according to the state's guidelines. Children are particularly
at risk: An Environmental Working Group study found that more
than 2.4 million pounds of methyl bromide were applied near California
schools in 1995, the latest year for which use figures are available.
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