Citizens “illegally sprayed with herbicides” denounced by Sen. Kruse

Curry Coastal Pilot – by Jane Stebbins

If the citizens of Cedar Valley — illegally sprayed with herbicides in October of 2013 — felt invalidated and ignored after a settlement with the aerial sprayer was announced last week, they were even more stunned Tuesday when State Sen. Jeff Kruse (R) denounced their characters, as well.

His statement came during the third hearing of House Bill 3549 — the so-called baby buffer bill — that would require pilots to avoid homes and schools when they spray poisonous chemicals.  

“Those people of the South Coast who complained,” Kruse said, “I know for a fact that the chemicals sprayed could, in no way, shape or form, could have caused the reactions they (said they) caused.

“I also know, those people have a long history of substances and adult beverages that might have contributed to it,” he added. “The two chemicals sprayed did not cause the reactions they have, could not have killed their dogs. They were herbicides; I know this for an absolute fact.”

Cedar Valley residents were aghast, and flooded his office with phone calls.

Spray day

Back in October 2013, more than 40 citizens of Cedar Valley, northeast of Gold Beach, were sprayed by herbicides during a timberland farming operation. The chemicals caused instantaneous reactions among many, including blistering rashes, wheezing and raspy breathing, stomach ailments and headaches.

A dog had to be euthanized after he shed weight shortly after the incident. A horse went blind. A woman carrying twins lost one of her babies. Citizens there don’t think it’s coincidence.

Laboratory analysis showed the chemicals included Triclopyr, an endocrine disruptor found in Round-Up, and 2,4-D, an herbicide found in Agent Orange, a chemical used in Vietnam to kill vegetation and expose the enemy. Decades and generations later, that chemical has been found to have caused numerous varieties of cancer and birth defects, among other ailments.

This past week, Cedar Valley residents say the fog has lifted residual chemicals into the air. People are cranky, coughing, not feeling well. They believe it’s the volitization of the herbicides.

A major complaint of those in Cedar Valley was that, under state law, spraying companies do not have to divulge to the public what chemicals it is spraying. That exacerbated efforts for doctors treating the patients as they came through their offices.

The sprayer, Steve Owen, owner of Pacific Air Research of White City, was found to have withheld information from investigators and lied about the chemical application.

Last month, the Oregon Department of Agriculture — which makes the rules relating to aerial spraying — prosecuted the case in Tualatin. The citizens mostly wanted increased buffer zones around homes, schools and tributaries critical to downstream water sources and salmon habitat.

Instead, Owen settled “out of administrative hearing” to a one-year suspension of his personal pesticides license. His business license under Pacific Air Resources will likewise be suspended for one year. There was no fine.

The fight wears on

Many are stunned by Kruse’s comments.

“A man who insults his fellow Oregonians — his constituents. …” said Lisa Arkin, CEO of Beyond Toxics, a Eugene-based nonprofit that fights on behalf of people and the environment affected by chemicals. “He owes them a deep apology. What an insult.”

“It’s hard to even know where to start,” Arkin said when asked for a reaction. “He needs to sit down and read a boatload of published, juried research on the harm herbicides cause humans. He claims he knows more than the International Agency for Research on Cancer, which has concluded that herbicides including glyphosate can be carcinogenic.

“He displayed an astonishing ignorance about toxicology and why herbicides are regulated chemicals and why you have to have a license to spray them and why some are restricted,” she added. “These chemicals are dangerous to all living things.”

“This tells people what we’ve been up against — from the very beginning,” said Barbara Burns, a Cedar Valley resident who was sprayed. “Starting with our own local doctors, our (county) commissioners, everything. It goes on and on.”

The fight isn’t over, Burns said, despite thwarted efforts to get more time to speak to legislators — the Cedar Valley residents typically were allowed to speak five minutes at most while timber and chemical company representatives spoke at length — and attitudes like that Kruse expressed this week.

“He doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” said Chuck Ott, one of those affected by the illegal spraying. “The people I know up here are church-going, we don’t use drugs. He’s blowing smoke.”

Their plight has caught the attention of the media, other communities affected by aerial spraying, and nonprofit environmental and health organizations, but little has changed, they say. Oregon still has the most lax aerial spraying buffer laws in the Pacific Northwest, and the U.S. EPA even withdrew federal funding after waterways were found to be polluted with chemicals from timber operations.

To this day, spraying continues in Cedar Valley.

“We’re not done fighting,” Burns said. “We are not done.”

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