Sunday, June 29, 2014

Injecting some love into Loving Creek



I’ve been a resident of Picabo for 34 years. Living in an agriculture area, I’ve been able to watch how crops are grown and paddocks are irrigated. In fact, I look out my front windows to the east where hundreds of acres are irrigated.

Over the years I’ve seen a lot of abysmal agricultural practices. I guess in the modern day world, these are the profitable ways to get it done. Growth retardants aerial sprayed on the Beer Barley crops to the entire Silver Creek Valley sprayed with Malathion to eliminate the grass hopper populations causing damage to farmer’s crops. Should I mention the toxic spraying of the Seed Potatoes crops as well?
It’s ugly, toxic and quite frankly, smelly! In many cases these chemical applications are done within a few yards of Silver Creek or its tributaries.  I’ve even been warned by a ranch hand while fishing/guiding along the Creek to leave since the Seed Potato field had just been spayed the day before. Oh, that’s what the funny smell is.



 I’ve had a few tense words with a helicopter pilot applicator flying over my house loaded for bear, with chemicals. Illegal to say the least, but hey, who’s enforcing.

Today as I was out for a Sunday bike ride, I came across something I’ve never seen before. Here was an old flat bed Dodge pickup parked just off the Gannet Rd., next to Loving Creek. As I rode by, I notice some apparatus operating off the flat bed. I immediately turned around to check it out. Here was a box of some chemical that someone was injecting into Loving Creek with an electric powered applicator and hose. It didn’t look good. The hose was running off the back of the truck and into the headwaters of Loving Creek.


At further inspection, I noticed that it was an aquatic herbicide.

  

 I read the “environmental hazards” on the box of Cascade herbicide. It said in the first sentence; This pesticide is toxic to fish, and then, This pesticide is toxic to wildlife. Whoa, this is not looking good. Why would this landowner and farmer inject this stuff into one of the major tributaries of Silver Creek?



 I rode home and researched this chemical online. Cascade is typically use in irrigation canals/ditches to kill aquatic vegetation. I suppose this landowner/farmer considers Loving Creek nothing more than an irrigation ditch. It makes me wonder how long this practice has been in use in the Silver Creek drainage. It can’t be good for the aquatic communities as well.

Why have we seen such a significant crash in Mayfly populations on Silver Creek over the past 20 years?  Who knows for sure and some more recent transplants don’t think it’s happened, but these farming practices can’t be helping.


I contact Mr. Doug Megargle, our fishery biologist with the Idaho Fish & Game. He went to work on this immediately in order to get some information. Doug contacted the DEQ and they forwarded my info on to the EPA. The EPA responded to the DEQ and forwarded their info to Doug.


This Casdcade Herbicide is sold over the counter to anyone. Mr. Dirk Helder from the EPA says this if this product is applied by a private landowner and not a contractor:

Under the NPDES Pesticide General Permit (PGP) they would not have to obtain a permit from EPA nor would they have to notify EPA of their pesticide applications.
Small applicators have few responsibilities under the PGP, larger applicators and weed control Districts have extensive permit requirements. Under the CWA even as a private landowner, they would still need to follow the PGP but for a private landowner making this type of application that would require them to calibrate their equipment correctly to ensure the proper amount of pesticide is being applied and to follow the pesticide label.
I know if I was a hatchery operator I'd be pretty concerned along with the fact that Silver Creek is downstream. From a good neighbor perspective it seems like the applicator could have done more, but they would not need an NPDES permit and would only need to primarily follow the label to meet EPA's requirements. 

Apparently if this Herbicide is introduced into a waterway correctly, and in the proper doses, the claim is that it is not toxic to fish. Still, it is risky business and mistakes can be made. From a aquatic ecosystem perspective, it can't be healthy. 

Once the IDF&G had the opportunity to run the license plates on this Dodge truck, the owners identity was shared with me. Picabo Livestock, Nick Purdy owner of the Picabo Angler a newly created outfitting and guiding business. His response to the IDF&G about injecting Aquatic Herbicides into Loving Creek was, "we've been doing this for years".  

Wow, I'm dumbfounded but not entirely surprised.





 

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