West Coast Salmon Show Up in East Coast Courtroom
Tuesday, October 30, 2012 at 12:00AM 
A federal court in Virginia is being asked to overturn a decision with major impacts on salmon and steelhead in California and three other western states.
The National Marine Fisheries Service recommends buffers of at least 500 feet where certain pesticides can't be sprayed around salmon streams, and last year, a lower court agreed. But Dow Chemical and two other manufacturers are fighting the decision, saying buffers aren't necessary and will cost them business.
The case is being heard in the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Virginia because that's the closest appeals court to the Fisheries Service headquarters.
Despite a NOAA 2008 biological opinion that chemicals used in pesticides – diazonin, malathion, and chlorpyrifos - are likely to jeopardize 27 populations of salmon on the West Coast that are listed as either endangered or threatened, Oregon state regulators just rejected the idea of requiring pesticide-free buffers around rivers and streams.
Reader Comments