LBAM Aerial Spraying Off The Table - 3/23/2010

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Plan to spray for moth in Marin, Bay Area scrapped

Mark Prado, Marin Independent Journal
Posted: 03/23/2010 06:10:51 PM PDT

State agriculture officials announced Tuesday the end of a controversial plan to have planes spray pheromones over Marin and other Bay Area counties to kill off the light brown apple moth, a decision hailed by locals who had been fighting the plan.

"This will be very well received in Marin County," Supervisor Steve Kinsey said at the Board of Supervisors' meeting Tuesday upon hearing the development. "This is very good news for us."

A recently released state Department of Food and Agriculture final environmental impact report on the moth - the invasive insect the state fears could cause widespread agricultural damage - outlined how to address the pest, and aerial spraying remained an element of the plan despite protests.

But that changed Tuesday when agriculture officials certified the environmental impact report and filed an additional "findings document" stating that the aerial treatment with moth pheromones - to disrupt breeding - is not a management tool in the program. The document supersedes the environmental report, officials said.

"The management plan does not include the aerial treatment," said Steve Lyle, spokesman for the state's food and agriculture department.

Additionally, state officials concurred with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's recent announcement that the program should shift from eradication to suppression and control.

"It's a very welcomed pivot," said Assemblyman Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, of the state's actions Tuesday. "It's an acknowledgment that eradication is not possible. It's something we have been questioning for months."

But Huffman is concerned the program is continuing with placement of pheromone twist ties on trees and plants and the release of sterile moths to control the pests.

"There is a remaining disconnect. We need to reconsider this whole idea that LBAM should be an actionable pest when there is no credible evidence of crop damage. It's a charade," Huffman said.

The moth is appearing more frequently in Marin. In 2008, 116 insects were found, while in 2009 the number jumped to 3,848, according to state data. A similar number of traps were put out in the two years.

The announcement of the end of aerial spraying as an option came on the same day Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, chairman of the Senate Food and Agriculture Committee, held a hearing in Sacramento on the light brown apple moth that included testimony from Marin residents and others.

Debbie Friedman, chairwoman of Mothers of Marin Against the Spray, was among those who testified, and she said later she is still concerned.

"The CDFA is slowly backpedaling and they have admitted they can't eradicate the moth, which we said all along, and they have been forced to take aerial spraying off the table," she said after her testimony. "But they still could ground spray and they can still use pesticides in our yards."

The moth controversy arose in 2008 when the state unveiled plans to use airplanes to spray over Marin and other Bay Area counties to eradicate the moth, which officials said can be a voracious eater of crops and plants.

In the wake of the 2008 controversy, Huffman wrote AB 2765 requiring disclosure and public involvement in the state's pesticide spraying programs. The bill requires the department to hold public hearings before spraying, disclose elements of the spray and to evaluate the human and environmental health effects.

Earlier this month some farmers, growers, nursery owners, plant wholesalers, produce distributors, restaurant owners and business proprietors from around California signed a letter and sent it to the state asking that the light brown apple moth eradication program be ended along with its quarantines.

Edward Segal, chief executive officer of the Marin Association of Realtors, also spoke at the Sacramento hearing Tuesday.

"We were pleased the aerial spraying was taken off the table and we want to make sure it stays off the table," he said after testifying. "This is a quality-of-life issue for Marin."

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Checkmate - Stop The Spray!

Note: EON filmed the California Senate Food & Agriculture Committee's March 23, 2010 on LBAM. Check back to the Stop the Spray forum where the video will be posted as soon as it is released.

EON has been documenting California's historic, trend-setting Stop the Spray Movement since its inception. This is a 15 minute preview of a documentary-in-progress - as well as a stand-alone community education and organizing video - showing the history of the so-far-effective resistance of Central Coast and Bay Area activist groups against the California Dept. of Food and Agriculture (CDFA)'s plan to pesticide ecosystems, organic farms and citizens against the public's informed consent. The issue of 'chemical trespass' and chemical pollution are not just local or state issues. With the planet losing nearly 20 species per day, chemical contamination of the biosphere for short-term profit becomes a long-term planetary survival issue.

Video - 3/11/10 - Checkmate - Stop The Spray!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OYM8i5QHAQ

Note: LBAM DVDs are available at info@EON3.net. Please help support EON's work with a tax-exempt contribution of any amount: http://www.eon3.net/donate.html.

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Ca. Senate Food & Ag Committee 3/23/10 LBAM Hearing

Part 1. In this segment of the March 23, 2010 CA. Senate Food and Agriculture Committee Chaired by Senator Dean Florez, farmers, scientists and a businessman relate their experiences with and views of the California Department of Food and Agriculture's LBAM program.

Video 1 - 3/23/10 - California Senate Food & Agriculture Committee LBAM Hearing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VuNfy-me-E

Part 2. In this segment of the March 23, 2010 CA. Senate Food and Agriculture Committee Chaired by Senator Dean Florez, officials from APHIS, USDA and CDFA testifiy about the international trade and local implications of the California Department of Food and Agriculture's LBAM program.

Video 2 - 3/23/10 - California Senate Food & Agriculture Committee LBAM Hearing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLZ04OGyxAI

Part 3. Public Comments A. This segment of the March 23, 2010 CA. Senate Food and Agriculture Committee Chaired by Senator Dean Florez features testimonies by: Chris Mittelstaedt, Founder - The FruitGuys; Frank Egger, North Coast Rivers Alliance; Carolyn Cohan, MOMAS (Mothers of Marin Against the Spray); Debbie Friedman - Chair, MOMAS (Mothers of Marin Against the Spray); Edward Segal - CEO, Marin Association of Realtors; Roy Upton, Citizens for Health; and Dr. Daniel Harder - Plant Biologist, Former Director, UC Santa Cruz Arboretum.

Video 3 - 3/23/10 - California Senate Food & Agriculture Committee LBAM Hearing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlayTO5yhJk

Part 4. Public Comments B. In this segment of the March 23, 2010 CA. Senate Food and Agriculture Committee Chaired by Senator Dean Florez features testimonies by: Paulina Borsook, Stop the Spray Santa Cruz; David Dilworth, HOPE - Helping Our Peninsula's Environment; Mike De Lay, Coalition of California Cities to Stop the Spray; Helen Kozoriz, Coordinator - Stop the Spray Alameda County; and Glen Chase, Professor of Management Systems.

Video 4 - 3/23/10 - California Senate Food & Agriculture Committee LBAM Hearing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41PW64DhTdg

Part 5. Public Comments C. In this segment of the March 23, 2010 CA. Senate Food and Agriculture Committee Chaired by Senator Dean Florez features testimonies by: Stacy Carlson, Marin County Agricultural Commissioner; Tammy Davis, RDI - Regenerative Design Institiute; Barbara Deutsch, Horticulturalist; Yannick Phillips, Sonoma, CA. Resident; Dr. Paul Gutierrez, Professor, Dept. of Envir. Science, Policy & Management - U.C. Berkeley; Mary Beth Brangan, Co-Director, EON - the Ecological Options Network reading various submissions from others.

Video 5 - 3/23/10 - California Senate Food & Agriculture Committee LBAM Hearing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14XVoRuuqlE

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Florez: New LBAM Legislation Looms

Opponents urge ending CDFA's moth-control campaign . . .

3/27/10 - Sacramento, California - State Sen. Dean Florez, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said he will likely introduce legislation soon to restrict how the state addresses the light brown apple moth.

Florez, D-Shafter, conducted a March 23 hearing to collect testimony on the California Department Food and Agriculture's environmental impact report on its program for controlling the pest.

Since completing the report, the state has shifted its goal from eradicating the moth to simply controlling it. The state has also given up aerial spraying, which many coast-area residents say has caused serious impacts to human health.

The moth is known to exist in 16 California counties. Researchers say eradication over such a wide area is impossible, and many urge the state end its LBAM program, saying natural controls keep the pest sufficiently in check.

Researchers, organic farmers and coast-region residents filled the room for the nearly four-hour hearing and applauded when Florez mentioned legislation.

Florez said he wants "closure" on the issue, hoping to ensure that CDFA does not return to aerial-spraying techniques before he leaves office. Florez's term in the Senate expires this year.

Organic farmers, several of whom testified, fear the potential loss of organic certifications as a result of their commodities being contaminated with LBAM-fighting chemicals.

Chris Mittelstaedt, founder of The Fruit Guys, a San Francisco-based supplier of small-farm produce, said moth quarantines are also contributing to a trade imbalance.

In response to quarantine restrictions, buyers often import produce from countries, including New Zealand, that have no quarantine rules despite LBAM having long existed there, Mittelstaedt said.

USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service recently denied petitions to remove LBAM from its list of quarantine pests. Critics contend the moth has yet to cause any significant crop damage. CDFA describes only the potential for moth damage.

"CDFA has refused to listen to the science, or at least have a discussion of the validity of the science," said Paul Gutierrez, a professor at the University of California-Berkeley, at the hearing.

In early 2009, APHIS commissioned a review by the National Academy of Sciences, which confirmed in September that LBAM should be treated as an invasive insect that poses major damage potential.

News article:
http://www.capitalpress.com/california/ ... ing-032610

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LBAM: CDFA/USDA Program - Latest News

KGO Radio News Host Christine Craft interviews Nan Wishner, former City of Albany integrated pest management board member and Stop the Spray East Bay, about the light brown apple moth CDFA/USDA program, current actions and status.

Audio - 4/1/10 - LBAM: CDFA/USDA - Latest News:
http://members.kgoradio.com/kgo_archive ... 1270462680

State Senator Florez, Farmers, Scientists, Business People Demand End To Apple Moth Program & Oppression Of Domestic Growers

Trade issues revealed as sticking point . . .

4/1/10 - Sacramento, California - On March 23, State Senator Dean Florez, Chair of the Senate Food and Agriculture Committee, held a hearing at the State Capitol to evaluate the need for the California Department of Food and Agriculture's (CDFA) Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM) Eradication Program.

The unstated theme for the hearing was, "how can California help the federal government end the LBAM program?"

Senator Florez said that "(LBAM) eradication is really not the issue here at all. It's always been about finding other ways to deal with something that's been here for a very long time, probably still will be here for a very long time...and if we even have to deal with it at all."

Edward Segal, CEO of the Marin County Association of Realtors, testified to negative impacts on real estate sales from the joint state and federal LBAM treatment program, whether the sales were for residential or agricultural properties. He said "Today, we are joining with a broad coalition of farmers, businesses, community groups and organizations to call for the termination of the entire LBAM program."

Andrew Gutierrez, Professor Emeritus of Ecosystem Science at UC Berkeley, said "CDFA's approach appears to be bureaucratic rather than scientific, resulting in tens of millions of dollars (or more) being spent on questionable pest-control campaigns. It has a long history of failed eradication attempts starting with the native grape leaf skeletonizer in the 1960s, the Mediterranean fruit fly in mostly Southern California, and currently LBAM --- which is restricted to cooler coastal areas where it is frequently detected but at non-economic levels."

Erin Morin, a conventional San Diego County avocado grower and Farm Bureau member, described her experiences under quarantine for the medfly as "catastrophic", placing blame squarely on CDFA. "It was heartbreaking to see someone from the government treat us like that. If we continue on this path, I'm going to be out of business in less than three or four years. Growers are shaking their heads. Why are they coming down so hard on us?"

Morin is facing possibly a second quarantine for LBAM after a moth was recently trapped in San Diego County. A second moth find would trigger a quarantine. Under quarantine, agricultural products cannot be moved out of the area without rigorous LBAM inspections. CDFA inspectors could order farmers to spray entire fields with pesticides, or shut down operations for noncompliance.

"We're farmers and growers, we're people who supply food for our local areas," said Morin. "We want to stay in business, we don't want to be railroaded."

Chris Mittelstaedt is founder and CEO of The FruitGuys (South San Francisco), a company which delivers fresh fruit to offices from regional hubs around the United States. Mittelstaedt told the story of Santa Cruz County berry farmer Greg Rawlins and his Blue Moon Organics, where this family farmer lost $40,000 in revenue in the summer of 2009 and had to pay his workers to pick crops to be thrown away --- all because of a suspected LBAM sighting.

Up until now, farmers have been afraid to speak publicly about quarantines due to fears of retaliation by the state agency. Mark McAfee, an almond grower and CEO of Organic Pastures Dairy Company (Fresno), the largest organic raw-milk dairy in the world, testified to the "fear from farmers" because "they're not included in the process" of the LBAM program.

Mittelstaedt testified that the LBAM program "is inadvertently creating international trade policy that benefits international farmers exporting product from countries that do not quarantine for LBAM over our own local California growers who work under this quarantine. I imagine CDFA would at least want to make sure that there is a fair playing field for all --- which currently as a result of this policy in regards to the domestic and international trade issue --- there is not."

Quarantines, whether intrastate, interstate or international, remain in effect for at least eleven California counties.

Two petitions submitted to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) requested LBAM be reclassified from Class A (of major concern) to a nonactionable pest (not requiring government action). On March 15, USDA announced a program shift from eradication to control and suppression of LBAM, but failed to reclassify the insect.

Yet Michael Guidicipietro, Deputy Director, Phytosanitary Issues Management, Plant Protection and Quarantine, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, USDA, testified that even if LBAM were reclassified, the quarantines would not be lifted. "The trade arena has become a lot more sophisticated...(and) anybody that thinks that if (the) U.S. were to deregulate that some of the other trading partners would necessarily sort of fall in line, I don't see that."

This confirms what many people have felt for a long time, that trade difficulties are what lie behind the CDFA/USDA program, not protection of California agriculture. Three years have passed since CDFA first declared LBAM an emergency, yet there is still no documented LBAM crop damage. The failure to address these trade matters is a problem at the federal level.

Senator Florez advised the committee to write a letter to CDFA to "bring closure to this issue". He may also introduce legislation before the end of session this year.

Press Release (pdf attachment):

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San Diego County Local Farmers Advised On LBAM

One discovered so far, in Bonsall; second would mean a quarantine.

4/8/10 - Between 80 and 90 farmers attended a March 23 informational meeting on the Light Brown Apple Moth.

The meeting was held at the San Diego County Farm Bureau office in Escondido and was presented by the County of San Diego’s Department of Agriculture Weights and Measures and the California Department of Food and Agriculture. The topics included information about the pest and its recent find in Bonsall, and possible requirements in case quarantine is triggered by a second find.

"It was very well-attended," said San Diego County Farm Bureau executive director Eric Larson.

On March 2, a Light Brown Apple Moth was found in a Bonsall trap. "We’ve got one moth. If they find two, that triggers quarantine and no one will be able to ship agriculture products until their farm is inspected," Larson said. "They couldn’t sell anything for two to three weeks."

Despite the moth’s name, the apple is only one of more than 250 crops and more than 2,000 plants on which the Light Brown Apple Moth is suspected of feeding. The caterpillar form of the moth feeds on leaves, buds, shoots and fruit.

The second moth would need to be found within three miles of the first find and within one lifecycle, which at this time of year is approximately 60 days, to trigger a quarantine.

The Light Brown Apple Moth is native to Australia, but 13 California Counties are already considered infested areas. Twelve of those counties are in the Bay Area, and Santa Barbara County is the southernmost California county considered to be infested. The infestations in the California counties and in Hawaii are currently the moth’s only presence in the Western Hemisphere.

Females deposit egg masses, which usually consist of between 20 and 50 eggs, on upper leaf surfaces or on fruit. At the larval stage the moth disperses and constructs silken shelters on the underside of leaves, often near a midrib or a large vein. Older larvae roll together leaves and buds or fruit with webbing, and the surface feeding by the larvae results in the damage to fruit.

Adult moths are light brown or yellowish with varying amounts of darker brown color. The typical wingspan ranges between 16 and 25 millimeters. Female adults are larger than males and typically have fewer distinct markings, and the females often have a distinct spot in the middle when their wings are closed.

The larvae are green and reach approximately 18 millimeters at maturity, while the pupae are brown and are approximately 11 millimeters long. Light Brown Apple Moth eggs are pale white and are deposited slightly overlapping each other.

In the event of a quarantine, host materials will include all live nursery plants, all fresh green waste material and cuttings from any plants, all fresh garlands, wreaths, cut flowers, and greens produced within the quarantine area, all harvested fruits and vegetables produced within the quarantine area except certain commercially-produced crops, and all machinery and equipment used in the growing, harvesting, processing, and hauling of host plants or plant parts. The quarantine would not apply to seeds removed from fruit, leafless and dormant nursery stock which is either bare-rooted or in containers where all leaf litter and weeds have been removed, or dying or dead plant material which has been ground up and moved directly to a sanitary landfill or state-licensed compost facility within the quarantine area.

Host materials can only be moved within or beyond the quarantine area with a certificate issued by an authorized governmental agricultural official stating that the article or commodity came from a location free of any form of the moth, with a certificate issued by an authorized governmental agricultural official stating that the article or commodity has been inspected or treated properly and is apparently free from any form of the moth, if purchased at a retail sales location and with a sales receipt, or if the article or commodity was produced outside the quarantine area and is being transported through the quarantine area without delay in vehicles or containers which prevent infestation. Agricultural machinery or equipment can only be moved if cleaned and treated to the satisfaction of the California Department of Food and Agriculture or the county agricultural commissioner.

While an internal state quarantine area would encompass a 1 1/2-mile radius around each find, a federal quarantine preventing products from being shipped outside the state could encompass a larger area. "It could be possible that the quarantine area would be the entire county," Larson said.

Because host materials could be moved with a certificate of inspection and treatment, some farmers are seeking such certification in advance of a possible quarantine. Currently such inspections require overtime work by Department of Agriculture Weights and Measures inspectors, although AWM is considering the possibility of utilizing outside contractors to meet requests. "It depends on the demand for the inspections," Larson said.

News article:
http://www.thevillagenews.com/story/46888/

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Lawsuit Calls LBAM EIR Flawed

4/21/10 - Moss Landing - Concern that state agriculture officials will reverse course and resume aerial spraying against the light brown apple moth has prompted a lawsuit by a coalition of Northern and Central California activists and elected officials.

The lawsuit against the California Department of Food and Agriculture and its leader, A.G. Kawamura, seeks to overturn a recently certified environmental study of the state plan to control the Australian pest and to halt the plan's implementation.

"We'll always be willing to challenge the state as long as there is a threat out there of LBAM spray ending up in our air without our community consent," said Santa Cruz Councilman Tony Madrigal, one of the plaintiffs. "Our lungs, our choice."

The lawsuit, filed Monday in Sacramento Superior Court, alleges a number of inadequacies in the environmental report, not the least of which was a shift in goals from eradication to control after the study was complete. In the environmental report, state officials declined to consider alternative strategies that fell short of eradication.

Agriculture officials also took aerial spraying off the table, saying the spread of the insect made it impractical.

Nevertheless, the plaintiff's Oakland attorney, Stephan Volker said the environmental document says eradication is possible and aerial spraying isn't harmful.

"Once the EIR is satisfied, the state could change its position on whether to conduct aerial spraying and say the new EIR provides adequate analysis," Volker said. "It's still based on the original game plan and is fraught with mistakes in science."

In an e-mail statement, Steve Lyle, spokesman for the state agriculture department, said, "We stand behind the EIR and its robust process."

The department has begun to implement the plan, which now calls for ground-based treatments and the release of sterile moths to disrupt breeding.

Lyle said the department has placed pheromone twist ties in Arroyo Grande in San Luis Obispo County, and plans to place them next week in Santa Barbara before moving on to Yolo County.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is handling the sterile moth program. Spokesman Lawrence Hawkins said testing that began last fall on the border area of Napa and Sonoma counties is expected to resume next week after a cold weather hiatus.

Hawkins said a Moss Landing sterile moth breeding facility also is ramping up. Two weeks ago, it was producing about 40,000 moths a week, a number it expects to grow to 500,000 by mid-May and to 3 million or 4 million by August or September.

"Then we'll look at implementing the (sterile insect) program," Hawkins said. "I'm not sure where we'll begin."

The light brown apple moth, which feeds on a wide variety of crops, was first discovered in California in a Berkeley backyard in 2006.

After it appeared in Santa Cruz County in 2007, state agriculture officials launched an offensive that included aerial spraying over urban areas. Some residents said the spraying made them sick, and in 2008, the city and county of Santa Cruz sued to stop it.

Superior Court Judge Paul Burdick ordered a halt to spraying pending the completion of the recently certified environmental study.

In 2009, 43,347 light brown apple moths were trapped in the county, up from 11,097 in 2007. The only documented crop damage blamed on the moth occurred in 2009 in a Pajaro Valley blackberry field.

News article:
http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_14930346

Marin Group, Others Sue State Over Moth Control Plan

4/21/10 - A Marin anti-spray group has joined a coalition of environmental groups in a lawsuit filed in Sacramento Superior Court challenging the state's environmental impact report on how to deal with the light brown apple moth.

The pest had state officials contemplating spraying pheromones over Marin and other Bay Area counties to stop the moth, an invasive insect officials feared could cause widespread agricultural damage.

But last month state Department of Food and Agriculture officials announced the end of that controversial plan and added a "findings document" to their environmental report stating that aerial treatment is not a management tool in the program.

But this week - led by the North Coast Rivers Alliance - Stop the Spray Marin, Fairfax Councilman Larry Bragman and others sued the state, saying the environmental document leaves the door open for aerial and ground spraying.

Former Fairfax mayor Frank Egger, president of the North Coast Rivers Alliance and a board member of Stop the Spray Marin, said the suit was filed because "CDFA continues to believe that it is above the laws that require full and fair disclosure of the environmental impacts of its pesticide spraying programs."

Steve Lyle, a spokesman for the state's food and agriculture department, said the environmental report assessing the moth plan is solid.

"We stand behind the EIR and its robust process," he said.

The lawsuit alleges the state's environmental impact report violates the California Environmental Quality Act and it asks for an injunction against the moth management plan.

The moth controversy arose in 2008 when the state unveiled plans to use airplanes to spray over Marin and other Bay Area counties to eradicate the moth, which officials said can be a voracious eater of crops and plants. But the planes were never used after an uproar in Marin and other communities.

In the wake of the 2008 controversy, Assemblyman Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, sponsored AB 2765 that requires disclosure and public involvement in the state's pesticide spraying programs. The bill requires the department to hold public hearings before spraying, disclose elements of the spray and to evaluate the human and environmental health effects.

In March some farmers, growers, nursery owners, plant wholesalers, produce distributors, restaurant owners and business proprietors from around California signed a letter and sent it to the state asking that the light brown apple moth eradication program be ended along with its quarantines.

The moth is appearing more frequently in Marin. In 2008, 116 insects were found, while in 2009 the number jumped to 3,848, according to state data. A similar number of traps were put out in the two years.

News article:
http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_14931524

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Godzilla Versus Mothra: The LBAM Sequel

4/22/10 - By Sarah Phelan - It seems like only the other day that the Guardian broke the news that the California Department of Food and Agriculture was threatening to spray San Francisco with moth pheromones, based on controversial estimates of a tiny invasive moth's economic and environmental impacts.

That program was stopped, but not before residents of Santa Cruz and Monterey were subjected to repeated spraying by low-flying crop dusters, and questions were raised about the economic and political motivations behind the push to spray.

And now, on the 4oth anniversary of Earth Day, City Attorney Dennis Herrera has announced that San Francisco is joining a coalition of cities and health, environmental and mothers' groups in a lawsuit that challenges the state's current light brown apple moth (LBAM) eradication program.

Filed in Alameda County Superior Court today, the civil lawsuit charges that the final programmatic Environmental Impact Report for the program is not based on sound science, and is invalidated because the program's objective was changed from eradicating to merely controlling the moth, after the EIR was finished.

"The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) has produced an environmental impact report that raises many more questions than it answers," Herrera said in a press release. "After combing through this document, it is literally impossible to say with certainty what CDFA plans to do, or when and where it plans to do it. To confuse matters further, the eradication program under review was subsequently morphed into a 'control, contain and suppress' program-whatever that means."

SF City Attorney LBAM Related April 22, 2010 Legal Documents & Press Release:
http://www.sfcityattorney.org/index.aspx?page=290

News article:
http://www.sfbg.com/politics/2010/04/22 ... bam-sequel

Second LBAM Lawsuit Filed

4/22/10 - Oakland - A coalition of San Francisco Bay Area cities and community groups filed a lawsuit challenging the state's light brown apple moth program Thursday in Alameda County Superior Court.

The lawsuit, the second this week related to the California Department of Food and Agriculture program, alleges an environmental study on the program is not based on sound science and is invalidated by a last-minute change in the state goal from eradication to control. As a result, plaintiffs say, the study didn't examine reasonable alternatives, including taking no action.

Another lawsuit, filed Monday in Sacramento Superior Court, makes similar charges in an attempt to overturn the EIR and halt the program.

State agriculture officials certified the environmental study in March, and have launched the program, which calls for ground-based treatments with pesticides and pheromones and the release of millions of sterile moths to disrupt breeding.

Among the plaintiffs in Thursday's lawsuit are the cities of Berkeley, Richmond and Albany, as well as Pesticide Watch and Pesticide Action Network and other environmental groups.

News article:
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/localnews/ci_14938684

Mothra: Attack Of The Light Brown Apple Moths! - Foolish Times (attachment):

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Is It Safe To Spray To Eradicate The Light Brown Apple Moth? Legal Battles Brew

4/24/10 - Talk about an earthy fight: Two coalitions of state environmental and community groups have recently filed lawsuits (see pdf lawsuit document below) against California’s program to eradicate the light brown apple moth. On Thursday, a collection of Bay Area cities and community groups filed their challenge of the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s program in Alameda County Superior Court.

The CDFA has been pushing forward efforts to curtail the spread of the invasive Australia moth, which the agency says poses a risk to fruit and ornamental plants. Detection of the moth has led to thousands of square miles of land being quarantined. State agriculture officials have certified an environmental impact study about a program that would use insecticide and other methods of decreasing reproduction rates. But the study has raised protests from scientists and environmentalists, who say the eradication measures are unnecessary.

The lawsuit filed in Alameda claims that the study is based on flawed data and scientific methodology, and that the state’s decision to try to control the moth – rather than simply eradicate it – invalidated the study.

The study didn’t weigh other options, such as not taking any action, and left unclear what other future options the agency might take, according to the complaint. The plaintiffs included the cities of Albany, Berkeley and Richmond, and nine other environmental or community groups.

“One has no way of guessing what spraying or any of the other many approved treatments CDFA will use (or what the risks and synergistic effects these treatments or any combination of treatments may have), where CDFA will use the various treatments … when CDFA will use what treatments, or even why CDFA will use whatever combination of treatments it may decide to use for any specific place,” the complaint states.

A second lawsuit, which outlined similar allegations and is trying to stop the program, was filed Monday in Sacramento Superior Court.

Lawsuit (pdf document):
http://www.latimes.com/media/acrobat/20 ... 460656.pdf

News article:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greensp ... -moth.html

Related News & Information

News article - 4/23/10 - LBAM Found In LAX Shipment Of New Zealand Blueberries:
http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/ci_14948283

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Renowned Environmental Law Firm Initiates First Legal Action Against State Agency Derelict In Its Duty

Violations of law and logic cited in apple moth suit.

4/26/10 - On April 19, The Law Offices of Stephan C. Volker, an Oakland public-interest law firm famous for its successful litigation on behalf of the environment, filed in Sacramento the first suit against the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) for its violations of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The suit demanded that CDFA actually comply with CEQA in the matter of the agency's recent Environmental Impact Report (EIR) on its Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM) program.

Frank Egger, President of North Coast Rivers Alliance and lead plaintiff, says "We aspire to live governed by laws and not by caprice. No state agency and no corporation is above the law. Our legal action demands that the State of California abide by its own laws enacted to protect the people and environment of California."

In addition to bringing suit against political appointee A.G. Kawamura, California's Secretary of Agriculture, the complaint also names the currently-known manufacturers of the pesticides intended for use in the CDFA LBAM program. The manufacturers include Aberdeen Road Company (Emigsville, PA), Pacific Biocontrol Corporation (Vancouver, WA), and ISCA Technologies Incorporated (Riverside, CA).

The lawsuit addresses itself to some of the most serious problems with CDFA's EIR. Perhaps the most troubling flaw in the EIR is that the entire CDFA LBAM program was predicated on the eradiction of the moth from California. This definition of the LBAM program as one where California was to become entirely LBAM-free was asserted by CDFA as recently as March 10, 2010; yet by March 22, 2010, the program had been switched to one, which, according to CDFA, is about "keeping LBAM from attaining damaging levels".

However, CDFA is attempting to use the same EIR for a program which has changed both focus and duration; the EIR was for an eradication program with an expected termination date of 2015. The CDFA's new LBAM control program could be extended through 2017, and has no end date.

As spelled out in the language of the complaint, "by substantially modifying the project's scope and goals after the Final EIR was already published, CDFA failed to create a proper EIR, as determined by case law in 1977."

Other violations of CEQA can be found here in the text of the complaint (see pdf legal complaint document link below).

The Volker lawsuit also speaks to potential harm to climate change, air quality, human and environmental health, and the status of special species, all of which would be affected by the materials intended for use in CDFA's LBAM program. It also addresses some of the many unscientific assertions that have characterized the CDFA LBAM program from its inception.

Plaintiffs named in the lawsuit live in LBAM treatment zones ranging from Monterey County to Marin County; some are among those injured in the 2007 aerial spraying of pesticides for LBAM in the Monterey Bay Area.

The Volker law firm has succeeded in a wide range of exemplary legal victories for the environment, including protections for Lake Tahoe and Joshua Tree, and the listing of Big Horn Sheep as an endangered species. It was also successful in having the United States Environmental Protection Agency outlaw further use of Checkmate, the LBAM-associated pesticide used in the aerial spraying of Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties in the fall of 2007.

LBAM is a leafroller native to Tasmania, and was officially detected in California in 2007. It has caused no documented damage in California. Thus far, CDFA has spent close to $50 million on its LBAM program, and the United States Department of Food and Agriculture (USDA) has spent almost $100 million. In March of this year, more than 100 growers and farmers, owners of large and small operations, both conventional and organic, signed a letter asking that the LBAM program be ended.

Volker LBAM Lawsuit Complaint:
http://www.dontspraycalifornia.org/Volk ... 041910.pdf

Press Release:
http://www.dontspraycalifornia.org/Volk ... 042610.pdf