ENVIRO UPDATE Wyman halts aerial spraying BY SARA DONNELLY

On April 6, the state’s second-largest blueberry grower unexpectedly announced it would stop aerial spraying of pesticides succumbing to a threatened lawsuit by local and national environmental groups, which claimed the chemical drift found in area waterways is point-source pollution according to the Clean Water Act. The types of pesticides comprising the drift from Wyman’s planes could cause behavioral damage to Atlantic Salmon, according to research by Adria Elskus, a professor of biological sciences at the University of Maine, and has proven to be dangerous for other aquatic life, insects, flora, and fauna (see "Blowin’ in the Wind," March 11, by Alex Irvine).

And humans. It’s not good for them, either.

Jasper Wyman & Son of Milbridge was founded in 1874 and owns more than 7000 fields of wild blueberries in Washington County. Wyman is the largest American-owned supplier of wild blueberry products in the country. In a letter last week to David Nicholas, an attorney representing the coalition of environmental groups threatening the lawsuit, Wyman President and CEO Edward Flanagan wrote, "We have concluded that rather than waste the time and money to litigate, we will no longer conduct aerial pesticide spraying." The letter falls within the 60-day notice that the groups were required to give Wyman under the Clean Water Act and so no lawsuit will be filed.

Wyman’s decision follows a similar move by the largest blueberry grower in the state, Cherryfield Foods, Inc. in Cherryfield, which agreed to stop aerial spraying last September after similar pressure. Both Wyman and Cherryfield will now administer pesticides and fungicides to their blueberries through a boom spray system, which distributes the chemicals from a long tractor attachment hovering a few feet above the ground.

Environmentalists affiliated with the proposed lawsuit are heartened that a second blueberry grower has abandoned its planes in the face of legal action under the Clean Water Act, although one prominent grassroots activist worries that Wyman has already successfully lobbied the Environmental Protection Agency to change current spraying restrictions so it can one day return to the more cost-effective aerial spraying.

Joan McMurray is an anti-spray activist who lives less than a mile from a Wyman berry patch in Columbia, Maine. McMurray points to what she calls "an important caveat" in Flanagan’s letter. Flanagan writes that Wyman will halt spraying "until and unless" the EPA or Congress limit pesticide regulation to allow for incidental discharges to area waters. Wyman submitted comments in February encouraging the EPA to this effect. Flanagan’s letter to Nicholas was mailed after the comments period closed on April 4.

According to Josh Kratka, an attorney for the National Environmental Law Center, the NELC and local and national groups submitted comments opposing this particular change to the Clean Water Act’s pesticide regulations. But Kratka says it’s a moot point as far as Wyman is concerned because the company sprays different pesticides than those in the regulation up for reconsideration.

Will Everitt is the Maine Field Director for the Toxics Action Center, which was one of the groups to threaten the lawsuit. Everitt says Wyman’s decision to abandon aerial spraying of pesticides to avoid litigation proves the environmental groups had a case.

"I think this is tremendous news for Maine’s environment," he says. "The two biggest blueberry growers in Maine, who for years and years have been using aerial spraying, when confronted with the Clean Water Act have backed away from it. It shows that we were right about this."

Grassroots groups in Downeast Maine, where both blueberry growers are located, have lobbied for years to end aerial pesticide spraying, citing health problems they attribute to chemical drift in the water and in the air. Local activist McMurray founded Citizens for Realistic Options to Pesticides, or CROPS. She says locals living downwind of the farms expect to come down with what they call "the summer flu" every June when the company starts dumping pesticides and herbicides overhead.

A study by the Maine Board of Pesticide Control (BPC) appears to support charges that chemical drift from Wyman’s planes and helicopters has landed in area waterways, although the levels found were admittedly low. The BPC study found trace discharges from Wyman’s aerial spraying in the Narraguagus River, Great Falls Branch, and several tributaries between 2000 and 2003. Five towns in Maine have banned aerial pesticide spraying.

Now that Wyman has moved to boom spraying, Everitt, McMurray, and area environmental groups plan to continue to monitor run-off into the waterways.

"Right now, besides celebrating, we hope to have drift catchers and air monitoring systems set up over the spring and summer to make sure the methods that they’re switching to aren’t causing drift as well," says Everitt. "The main thing for us is to watchdog what’s happening up there."