Road Kill

State's DOT is mainly to blame for roadside herbicides

by Angela Storey

We've all seen it--the brown strip of grass along our roads and highways. It is a telltale mark of the roadside herbicide applications performed by our cities, counties, and state agencies. Herbicides used range from Round-Up to Dicamba, and other toxic pesticides, including mixtures. Runoff from roadside herbicide applications can reach our streams, effecting the ability of salmon to swim, spawn, detect predators, or fight off disease.

Potentially the worst violator in the state is the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT). Charged with maintaining over 100,000 acres along state highways, the WSDOT uses herbicides that have been linked to cancer, developmental toxicity, endocrine (hormone) disruption, and ground water contamination. WSDOT does have an Integrated Vegetation Management (IVM) plan, and finds that where they have implemented IVM, their herbicide use has decreased. Despite these IVM programs, WSDOT reports that in 2000 alone, they used over 50,000 pounds of herbicides (active ingredients only!) just for gravel shoulder maintenance along highways. This does not include noxious weed control (another 20,000 pounds of active ingredients) or tree and brush control (5,000 pounds active ingredient).

Some of those most upset about WSDOT's resistance to reducing herbicide use are those who live in the six Washington counties that don't spray herbicides for county roadside management. "If the county has made a concerted effort to use non-chemical means to control vegetation along county roads, then the WSDOT should do the same," says Margaret Owens, who helps head up Clallam County No-Spray Coalition. The coalition is working with citizens in other no-spray areas--including Jefferson, Island, Snohomish, and Thurston Counties, as well as Bainbridge Island--to get WSDOT to stop using herbicides along state highways in their communities.

"We've seen the effects of the WSDOT indiscriminately spraying creeks, wetlands, native plants, beaches, and blackberry bushes where people often go to pick berries," says Josey Paul, another Clallam organizer. In a letter to the WSDOT last fall, Paul writes, "the DOT has moved into a policy of pesticides first ... The spray cannon is often left on as a general debrusher for long stretches, 'nuking,' in the vernacular of the spray crews, our scenic highways."

Owens and Paul have worked tirelessly to prove to the WSDOT that their county will not tolerate the state spraying along its highways. The coalition now has support from local salmon groups, tribes, labor unions, biologists, business owners, citizens, and even the Clallam Bay/Sekiu Chamber of Commerce. WSDOT says they are currently drafting an IVM plan for the area, but it will definitely include use of herbicides.

WSDOT Responds

On April 10, after hearing citizen concerns about herbicide use, Secretary of Transportation Doug MacDonald writes:"WSDOT is currently not considering an abandonment of herbicide use on any portion of the state highway system simply as a result of a county decision respecting the means of vegetation management on county roads in that county."

The fact is that there is no reason that the WSDOT can't begin no-spray programs in a few areas of the state. California does it. After battling with Caltrans for years, no-spray communities in northern California got the state to agree to maintain state highways within their counties without herbicides. If California can do it, so can we.

Take Action!

Send in your comments today! Let Secretary MacDonald know that you strongly support the WSDOT creating no-spray programs for communities that are choosing not to spray. WSDOT should be responsive to our concerns, and especially to the decisions made in our communities. You can also contact your state legislator and ask them to register their concern about this issue with the WSDOT.

You can send a letter from www.watoxics.org or write to Secretary MacDonald at [email protected], 360-705-6800, c/o WSDOT, PO Box 47316, Olympia, WA 98504-7316. For more information, contact Angela Storey, Pesticides Organizer, Washington Toxics Coalition, [email protected] or 206-632-1545 ext. 11