Suffolk Passes Pesticide Ban

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Suffolk Passes Pesticide Ban

BY: By Metz and and . STAFF WRITERS

EDITION: NASSAU AND SUFFOLK

SECTION: News

DATE: 10-06-1999

Seizing on widespread anxiety over mosquito spraying, Suffolk

lawmakers yesterday approved broad legislation to ban pesticides on all

county property.

After being bombarded by complaints from activists and concerned

citizens, the legislature passed a bill aimed at prohibiting toxic

chemicals on county land and was seriously considering another measure

designed to limit pesticides on protected ground, particularly in the

Pine Barrens, that contains crucial drinking-water sources.

Neither of the measures would stop the use of pesticides such as

Malathion in health emergencies like the West Nile encephalitis scare,

but they impose strict rules on their application in maintaining parks

and golf courses and environmentally sensitive lands.

" I think this is a landmark thing, " said Laurie Farber of Long

Island's chapter of the Sierra Club, a national environmental group. " I

really hope this is a bellwether now for the villages and towns and

Nassau County. " Similar bans have been enacted in a handful of other

municipalities in the state, and while environmentalists said that the

measures may not ban pesticides outright, they make significant strides

in the right direction.

" There is great ambivalence about spraying, and the public health

emergency has energized opponents of pesticides and called attention to

their dangerous nature, " said Legis. Bishop (D-West Babylon), who

sponsored the bill prohibiting the chemicals on county land.

Bishop's bill, which would be implemented over a three-year period,

passed unanimously and has received support from the Gaffney

administration. Some lawmakers and environmentalists, however, were

concerned that it will be weakened because it includes several

exemptions, from excluding property currently being leased out by the

county to granting some golf course superintendents the right to use

pesticides in emergencies.

The other initiative, which would establish a committee to review

and recommend restrictions on pesticide use near state-designated areas

where groundwater needs protection, was still under discussion last

night.

However, Legis. Guldi (D-Westhampton Beach), the sponsor,

said that he expected it to pass.

" We've got to get a handle on what we are putting in drinking water,

and we've got to stop it as fast as we can, " Guldi said.

The push to pass the bills came yesterday as health officials around

the region continued their efforts to control the spread of the disease.

So far, no mosquitoes in Suffolk County have been found to carry West

Nile encephalitis, although Suffolk health officials confirmed that dead

birds found in Huntington and town had the virus.

Copyright 1999, Newsday Inc.

By Metz and and . STAFF WRITERS, Suffolk Passes

Pesticide Ban, 10-06-1999, pp