State approves use of pesticides in Lake Tahoe
Pesticides will be allowed to be used in Lake Tahoe.
That was the decision the state Water Resources Control Board made May 15.
While plenty of hoops are in place for anyone wanting to do so, the ruling it ground breaking.
The Lahontan Regional Board in December approved the application of pesticides and herbicides in select circumstances. On Tuesday, this is also what the state board agreed to.
Environmental groups and some water purveyors had asked the state to consider a five-year moratorium on pesticide applications.
Lahontan wants the leeway to approve the use to help eradicate various aquatic invasive species in the lake.
— Lake Tahoe News staff report
Are you kidding me!!!!! Let us not introduce a spiecies that will reproduce as a food sourse i.e sterile fish planted by the DFG But let us introduce poisons into our LAKE!!!! Heaven Help Our Future
I’m already on record as saying the real test of this dangerous precedent is in getting EPA approval, which may take some doing as they consider any additive to our national water supply to be “pollution”, whether natural, organic, or synthetic – and, for those who want to reduce “government”, we now know why that might not be a good idea.
I will be looking into the Federal approval process at an appropriate time, but in the meantime, found a lost Rachel Carson quote to cover this situation:
“We need not think of these in terms of being an herbicide, a pesticide, a ‘larva'(cide), or an ‘adulti'(cide) we simply have to think of them all as “biocides”. . .”
Destructive in any form, no matter what the company brochure says…as Toogee’s defense (i.e., 20 X’s less toxic than salt) does not account for the underused concept of being a ‘persistent’ chemical – that of being cumulative (not going away, and build-up in the system).
Lake Tahoe’s water columns are known to take 700 years to recycle themselves, which I believe is a little longer than his/her lifespan, therefore replaces finding a more realistic answer with the well-known “kicking-the-can further down the road” for others to deal with – if not too late. . .this is also known as “rationalizing”, which Canadians identify as “fooling yourself”. . .
Astute as Rachel was, she realized that man has a great way of diminishing damaged trains-of-thought with a shift into what’s thought to be more digestable terms (a sort of political spin, but for your own misguided & misinformed Board, instead of just PR)
The guy going into Tahoe crawdad harvest must be thrilled with this development.
Vector control will not be the only use for this pesticide exemption. It will include pesticides for all types of aquatic invasive species in Lake Tahoe, which includes warm water fish species, Asian clams,Eurasian watermilfoil and curly leaf pondweed. That’s quite a few different types of chemicals that will have the potential to be discharged into Lake Tahoe.
How can poison be considered a good thing for Lake Tahoe???
What about the people who obtain their drinking water directly from Lake Tahoe? Were they consulted on this? Do they mind drinking pesticide?
If it is not OK to dump or spill fuel into the lake how can this be different?
Steve, they arent proposing to dump fuel in Lake Tahoe. So it is obviousely different. In fact the chemical that will be used is already in Tahoe and is produced by plants.