HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0489.239 2018-2020 P/AV M&
COMM. 4g1
support for Bill 101 to ban herbicide use by the County
for County Agriculture,Water, Energy,and Environmental Management Committee
1:00 PM Tuesday, October 15, 2019, Hilo Council chambers `'7'
cz) C'GJ
from Blake Watson,Sierra Club, Hawaii Island Group `° "'I
to
-s7..
rr-
Aloha Committee Members,
My name is Blake Watson,and I am submitting this testimony on behalf of the Sierra Club, HawaiiiVand-
Group.
Like the Climate Crisis Resolution,the goals and purposes of this legislation are pure common sense.As
they say, "the writing is on the wall".
A jury in California in August 2018 awarded a groundskeeper over 250 million dollars after agreeing with
his claim that Monsanto's glyphosate products caused his terminal cancer. Key in the ruling was the fact,
proven through court ordered FOIA and other evidence,that Monsanto and EPA scientists had
correspondences wherein it was disclosed that Roundup was a known carcinogen for decades among
these industry researchers, and this knowledge was kept secret from the public.Since then more
lawsuits have resulted in large sums being awarded against Monsanto,some in the billions of dollars. It
would be advisable for the County of Hawaii to heed these court determinations and do what they need
to do in order to uphold their fiduciary duty to the public to prevent any such lawsuits from happening
locally within their legal purview.While this bill calls for a four-year transition, nothing is stopping the
county from completing the transition ahead of schedule.
Public sector usage of carcinogenic chemicals on our roadsides, parks,and drainages is an
environmental justice issue.Within the halls of justice,we have seen enough evidence that proves that
there is a definite health risk posed to workers in this field being the most at risk. In adult populations,
in addition to acute exposure symptoms such as headaches and asthma attacks, pesticide exposure has
been linked to Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, bladder and colon cancer, Parkinson's disease,depression,
and disruption of the endocrine system. And according to the American Academy of Pediatrics,
pesticides such as Roundup are linked to childhood cancers, neurobehavioral and cognitive deficits,
adverse birth outcomes,and asthma.That said,the County of Hawaii uses so much herbicides in its
management program,this bill would also serve to protect the environment as well as the public.
That we must face the music concerning the risks posed by staying on the same trajectory is obvious.
What maybe doesn't get as much airplay yet is the ways that folks already know of better ways to
manage vegetation in these areas around the island than by using Glyphosate products. In fact,we don't
have to go back into history very far to see that vegetation management proceeded safely and
efficiently without the use of toxic chemicals. One example it that, back the 1950's the State of Hawaii
hired maintenance persons to take on sections of roadways by themselves. One of these people,who
mowed highway 11 between Glenwood and Volcano,figured out that if he planted native plants and
bushes, he could reduce the amount of area that he needed to mow,thereby beautifying and making his
work more efficient at the same time.
Comm. Aq•DA
Ref.To:`iI O
Ref. Date OCT 1 5 2019
The switch to organic methods, as it turns out, is an important tool for carbon sequestration-especially
within parklands.With the looming climate crisis,changing thegrid to be carbon free or carbon neutral
is more expensive per unit of sequestered carbon,than is simply switching to land management systems
that sequester the carbon through building the soil instead of cepleting it through chemical methods.
In 2015 and 2016,two previous bills were introduced to the County of Hawaii for this same purpose.
While the testimony by the public for these bills was considerable,certain provisions of the bills made it
difficult for some of the council members to support it, even th,ough these members supported the
intent of the bills.This new bill has been re-worked to accommodate those concerns, primarily being the
mechanism used to designate specific herbicides to be prohibited from usage. For this, Bill 101 would
create a schedule of prohibited chemicals in the code-including the chemical family and common brand
name,so that there is no confusion.
Mahalo committee members,
Blake Watson