Back in the 70s, it was cool to call yourself an environmentalist if you thought clean air and clean water were important. These days, whether or not they use the often polarizing "e word," most people I’ve met seem to think clean air and clean water are a good thing. Some of them have children. As parents, they want to protect their kids, and knowing what’s in the water they’re swimming in or drinking is important.
This morning, I got a call from an angry Mom. She had planned to take her kids to Rec Department swimming classes at City Beach. Everyone who signed up was given a flyer that essentially said, "oh by the way, don’t worry, but a few chemicals might be nearby." As it turns out, the County is planning to put herbicides into Lake Pend Oreille near the swimming area at City Beach starting Monday.
Some areas of the lake are infested with a noxious weed called Eurasian Milfoil. Last year, many news items ran about the treatments that were being proposed to deal with the problem. Last year, a chemical called Renovate was used in a number of areas. This year a chemical called Sonar PR (fluridone) is supposed to be applied.
The trouble is that apparently, no one announced this information. To put herbicide into the lake, you need to get a permit from the Department of Environmental Quality. They have a lot of rules in their permit, including that the County needs to publish information about the application in the legal notices section of a local and regional newspaper (i.e., the Bonner Daily Bee and Spokesman Review) at least two weeks prior to the treatment period.
I read the Material Safety Data Sheet on Sonar PR and like most herbicides, it has a number of precautions. I’m an organic gardener, so personally I don’t use chemical herbicides or pesticides. Even if they are technically "safe," they often kill a lot of "unintended targets" and damage the ecosystem. (Okay, you can call me an environmentalist now.) But whatever your view is on chemical versus non-chemical means of weed eradication, everyone affected does have a right to know what’s going on.
In this case, apparently proper notification didn’t happen. The person I talked to pulled her kids out of the swimming classes, and a number of parents are talking about protesting this weekend. So if you see people picketing around Sandpoint, now you know why.