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Herbicide use raising concerns
Herbicide use in Orange County is raising health and ecological concerns.
ORANGE COUNTY, Calif. - Residents in Orange County are raising concerns about large amounts of herbicides being sprayed along local creeks and riverbeds, saying the chemicals are killing vegetation, harming wildlife, and could potentially impact people living near the waterways.
The concerns come as county crews routinely spray herbicides along flood control channels to prevent vegetation from clogging waterways.
Some residents say the results are visible in places where once-green creek beds now appear barren.
"There’s plenty of water and it’s completely dead," said Brent Linas, a concerned resident.
A group of neighbors calling themselves the "Creek Team" began organizing about a month ago after noticing the issue. The group has since launched social media pages documenting the spraying and has attracted thousands of followers.
Members of the group say they have recorded county crews using trucks and long hoses to spray herbicides along waterways twice a year. They estimate more than 150,000 gallons of herbicide are used annually across Orange County.
"This is ecocide in my opinion," said Linas, a concerned resident with the Creek Team. "If any private corporation killed this much of an endangered species habitat, they’d be in jail."
Residents say they are particularly worried about the potential impact on wildlife, including the endangered Southern California steelhead trout, which uses some Orange County waterways to spawn.
"It would be like migrating through a Walmart parking lot," Linas said. "I don’t understand how it works. There’s no food web."
Others worry about possible impacts on people who recreate near the water.
"Our kids are down in the beach waters all the time," said Bethany Nelms, another member of the Creek Team. "It’s an area we were using a lot. I have a little bit of reservation right now."
Robert Beard, another resident involved with the group, raised concerns about the potential effects of herbicides on wildlife reproduction.
"When glyphosate is applied, it destroys sperm count for steelhead. It can’t reproduce," Beard said.
Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley said the spraying is part of the county’s flood control strategy, meant to prevent vegetation from blocking waterways during storms.
"You don’t want to have any vegetation in there or any material that might clog up the flood channel," Foley said.
However, after the community’s awareness campaign, Foley said she has just launched a pilot program in the Trabuco Creek and San Juan Creek channels to study alternative methods of vegetation management.
"It’s a matter of trade-offs," Foley said. "Do we err on the side of costs to remove it manually, or do we err on the side of using the herbicide because it’s less expensive?"
The pilot program will run through the end of the year in Foley’s district to evaluate the cost and feasibility of a manual approach. If successful, the program could expand to other parts of the county.
Orange County maintains almost 400 miles of flood control channels. Residents pushing for change say they hope the pilot program leads to broader changes in how those waterways are managed.
"We relied on these people who are supposed to be experts to do this work," said Nelms. "It took a group of concerned citizens to actually dig in and see what’s going on."