Pesticides Banned Near Salmon Streams

In January 2004, a federal court prohibited pesticide spraying in buffer areas along salmon streams and required pesticide warnings to be posted in urban home and garden stores. Read the latest article on the court order in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

List of Pesticides Affected

Salmon and Pesticides Fact Sheet

Seattle federal district court Judge John Coughenour has restricted the use of 38 pesticides near salmon streams and has required point-of-sale warnings on products containing pesticides that may harm salmon. The ruling came in a case brought by the fishing and conservation groups, Washington Toxics Coalition, Northwest Coalition for the Alternative to Pesticides, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations and the Institute for Fisheries Resources.

The ruling followed Judge Coughenour's 2002 decision that found EPA out of compliance with the Endangered Species Act for failing to protect salmon from harmful pesticides. Other pesticides may be added in the future based on this ruling.

The ruling puts in place no-spray buffers of 100 yards for aerial applications and 20 yards for ground applications, with exceptions for certain uses that are unlikely to pollute water. The court has ordered the EPA to notify retailers, distributors and consumers about pesticide concerns. The court order requires this warning for products containing seven pesticides that have polluted urban salmon streams:

SALMON HAZARD: This product contains pesticides that may harm salmon or steelhead. Use of this product in urban areas can pollute salmon streams.

These warnings must be provided to purchasers in urban home and garden stores throughout Washington, Oregon, and California.

The interim measures imposed in the court's ruling will protect salmon from these pesticides during the time it will take EPA to comply with the law. The judge found "with reasonable scientific certainty, that the requested buffer zones - 20 yards for ground applications, 100 yards for aerial applications - will, unlike the status quo, substantially contribute to the prevention of jeopardy" to salmon. He further found that the evidence "demonstrate[s] that pesticide-application buffer zones are a common, simple, and effective strategy to avoid jeopardy to threatened and endangered salmonids."

The buffer zones will become effective in early 2004 and will apply to salmon streams that support threatened and endangered salmon throughout Washington, Oregon, and California, including Alameda Creek.

What you can do: Do a pesticide survey for salmon and steelhead in your local store. Stores that sell pesticides are now required to post a warning sign. Please check as many stores as possible in your area to see if the signs are up. This information will be used to ensure compliance. The Salmon Protection And Watershed Network has a form you can download for the pesticide warning survey. Return completed forms to the ACA.

Dozens of nurseries and the Sunol Golf Course, which lease land from the SFPUC in the Sunol Valley adjacent to Alameda Creek, use a variety pesticides, including many of the pesticides of concern for impacts to native fish and amphibians.

Information about pesticides of concern for native amphibians such as the California red-legged frog and California tiger salamander can be found on pages 20-26 in a Center for Biological Diversity report on pesticides and endangered species.