Document b5vbqvx2KLJBokVVb5aYkNDO1

public nuisance without inspection. With this ruling, residents lost one method of measurable public resistance and civil The withdrawal of .oftanol evoked weak cheer here: CDFA deftly substituted in the other organophosphate, diazinon. (Has Ciba-Giegy, or better yet, any independent scien tists, tested diazinon's ability to produce OPIDN7 If so, we liberties took a dismal defeat. A plea to the state Supreme Court is being prepared with the support of other en vironmental and civil rights groups. (Please contact ACTION if you and/or your group can help us now.) are unaware, and CDFA has not been able to tell us.) Soil ap plications of diazinon began here on March 1, 1984, even though CDFA s own entomology panel declared its efficacy against the beetle larvae to be "poor". While urging that CDFA "go bio" and use both Milky spore* (rated as effective as diazinon by their own scientists)** and trapping (the com bination of both methods being more effective than diazinon), ACTION filed another'restraining suit. Duane Miller, a local attorney with considerable expertise in chemical toxicology and a successful suit against Dow on behalf of several workers who were made sterile by exposure to DPCB, took our case to federal court. The argument is based upon favorable decisions handed down in the Ninth Circuit Court that federal timber agencies in Oregon and Washington have not filed environmental impact statements in conformance with the National Environmental Policy Act Carbary 1 treatments began again on May 15, 1984 amid our protests. W e blockaded the gates of the compound where the equipment is stored and the workers gather their chemicals. For ten days we distributed leaflets there. (To readers of Dante's Inferno, it may seem rather appropriate that the storage yard is located between Folsom Prison and Folsom Dam). Two weeks after the spraying began, a few beetles were found in different locations. By mid-June two beetles (one dead, one alive) were trapped outside of the "zone" in neighboring Citrus Heights. The knee-jerk response by CDFA was of course to intensify their spraying efforts: spray "core areas" every seven days, rose bushes every two days and the rest of the area every fourteen days. Ten more (see "A Gift from the Northwest," NCAP NEWS 4(l);34-36). In addition, we maintain that CDFA and the other defendants (John Block, USDA Secretary, and T.L. Ladd, Chair of the Japanese Beetle Science Advisory Panel) violated the federal Clean Water Act, the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), and the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Our crews were hired, bringing the total to thirty who were spending their days spewing pesticides into the air and onto the soil. By now 7,605 properties were in the zone and CDFA sprayed carbaryl from May 15 through August 6 in their efforts to "eradicate" the beetle. Some properties were sprayed nine times with carbaryl during the campaign, some request for a preliminary injunction was denied by Federal Judge Milton Schwartz. An injunction against the eradication program was denied by Federal Judge Edward Garcia and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals refused to grant emergency relief. Other aspects of the case are pending at this time. ACTION has also concerned itself with the civil rights as pects of CDFA's program, specifically the right of an individ ual to be secure in ones own home. This is upheld by the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution which declares that no entity may enter private property without a court order showing just cause. 14 or more times altogether: three spring applications of diazinon, nine of carbaryl (more, if rose bushes were present), and three fall applications of diazinon: ACTION publically challenged the concepts and the merits of eradication. When the entomology panel recon vened in August without public input or debate, they stonefacedly read their recommendations for 1985. Chlordane topped their "wish list" followed by other banned chemicals (oftanol, lindane and Triumph) or "smelly" chemicals like . MoCap (ethoprop, an organophosphate) or "less effective chemicals" (Bendiocarb, diazinon, Dylox and Dursban). We, Three hundred and nine inspection warrants were issued in the people, upon whose living spaces these chemicals were to 1983 to force entry onto private property for CDFA pesticide be applied had one hour and twenty minutes to voice our applications. Less than one half of the 2,050 properties were outrage and objections before they flew out of California actually treated with oftanol in 1983 due to community resis back to their home states where compulsory eradication pro tance and fear of adverse publicity for CDFA if court orders grams are not tolerated. actually numbered in the thousands. Nearly 25 % of all resi dents in the soil treatment phase of the program (1984) were served with warrants. By May 1984, ten persons had been ar A'AiVre- rested for refusing to comply with CDFA's inspection war rants. Duane Miller filed a suit in Superior Court on behalf of In August, 1984, after a year of public criticism and numer those who challenged the warrants. Judge James Ford made a ous health and safety complaints, CDFA convened another declaration to Miller and defense counsel th at" . . . the inspec hand-picked panel of medical specialists to hear testimony be tion warrants neither authorized nor permitted forcible fore making any recommendations. ACTION learned of the entry." Our elation was short-lived, however, because he professional experiences of three of. the panel's five members: ruled several days later that CDFA has the right to abate a Two, Edward Smuckler (Ph.D., M.D.) and Sh eld o^^^gn er, M .D .,* had testified with pro-herbicide b iasesioT ffS^rerse * Milky spore is a bacteria that, when applied to the soil, infects beetle lar in, among other suits, the 1983 NCAP v. Block case; another vae. kills them, and subsequently produces millions of spores. One local panel member, Thomas Milby, has been retained by Shell host for Milky spore is the June bug. The presence of a local host is impor O il company to defend their chemical interests. Although we tant because there really aren't enough Japanese beetles to keep the spores were forewarned and prepared for the inevitable outcome, circulating. ** Milky spore is rated as 7 5 % effective. The efficacy of diazinon ranges * Sheldon W agner as a member of another panel in Oregon, participated in from 20-100% depending on the product quality, soil, and application proc th broccoli worker decision described in "W hy Farmworkers Don't Com ess. plain" (see p.6) 4 NCAP NEWS/FALL1984