Oregon's Environmental Quality Commission receives petition seeking tighter rules on pesticide pollution, especially involving farms and forests, from Portland-based group know for successful lawsuits on clean water issues

Audrey Dixon

LOS ANGELES , August 9, 2012 (Industry Intelligence Inc.) –

A commission that oversees Oregon’s Dept. of Environmental Quality (DEQ) was petitioned on Aug. 9 to tighten restrictions on pesticide use, especially from farms and forests, reported The Oregonian on Aug. 9.

The petition from Northwest Environmental Advocates, a Portland, Oregon-based group known for its successful lawsuits on water quality issues, was submitted to the Environmental Quality Commission, which must act within 90 days.

Given the group’s history, if the commission does not grant the request and DEQ does not begin to develop the proposed new rules, a lawsuit is likely, The Oregonian reported via OregonLive.com.

In its petition, Northwest Environmental Advocates asks Oregon regulators to resolve the “significant gaps” in its pesticide pollution regulations, including increasing buffer zones and restricting pesticide use.

Various steps are noted in the petition for improving the regulations, reported The Oregonian. One of these steps is to require that the state’s Dept. of Agriculture use point-of-sale notifications of the pesticide dangers by using label instructions approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

However, pesticides can leach into streams and harm threatened and endangered species even when they are used according to EPA-approved label instructions, based on federal fishery inspections, states the petition, The Oregonian reported.

The primary source of this article is The Oregonian via OregonLive.com, Portland, Oregon, on Aug. 9, 2012.

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