State May Allow Pesticide Spraying Despite Dangers

The state has changed its mind and now agrees that an insecticide proposed for use by Boise Cascade Corp. could pose environmental risks.

But the Department of Natural Resources said Monday it expects to approve - with conditions - aerial spraying of the potent chemical carbaryl on 10,000 acres of the timber company’s budworm-infested trees.

Two environmental groups vow to stop the spraying in court or through agency appeals.

Boise Cascade wants to spray diesel-laced carbaryl, trade name Sevin 4-Oil, to control a Western spruce budworm epidemic 20 miles southwest of Colville.

The company has applied for a permit to spray for five days in late June.

Almost all of the 200 people who have commented on the plan are against it, said Dick Dunton, the agency’s assistant regional manager in Colville.

Carbaryl is a broad-spectrum insecticide, meaning it kills all insects, not just budworms. The Washington Environmental Council and state Toxics Coalition say the chemical is harmful to wildlife and fish, and possibly people.

Boise Cascade says carbaryl is much more effective than a more benign bacterial agent typically used on budworm, which evolve from inch-long caterpillars to small moths that feed on Douglas, grand and subalpine fir, Engelmann spruce and Western larch.

Company officials could not be reached at the Kettle Falls mill Monday.

The state has reversed itself on finding the spraying will have no significant impact, and instead will be guided by a U.S. Forest Service study on budworm epidemics.

The study allows for carbaryl unless there are “rare and extraordinary circumstances.”

Dunton maintains that, “Basically, science indicates very little likelihood of adverse impacts, including that on human health.”

But the state will give the public 30 days to challenge the Forest Service budworm study, completed in 1989.

The state is expected to approve Boise Cascade’s permit on Thursday with at least 11 conditions, including stream buffers, public notification before spraying begins and posted warning signs.

Boise Cascade regional forester Phil Anderson said in January that the bug infestation is lowering the market value of large trees and killing smaller ones.

Cha Smith of the toxins coalition said the state is sidestepping the issue by allowing the spraying but couching it in terms that indicate there could be environmental risks.

“This decision is not good news for the hundreds of residents that live in the area or for the wildlife who occupy the mountainous area,” she said.