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[GreenYes] Fwd: [USCC] Looking for County Clopyralid Action Plans

>-----Original Message-----
>From:   Christine Urbach [SMTP:curbach@dhs.co.la.ca.us]
>Sent:   Thursday, January 24, 2002 8:17 AM
>To:     compost@compostingcouncil.org
>Subject:        [USCC] County Level Clopyralid Action Plans?????
>
>USCC participants:
>
>I've seen a number of other County level personnel on this list. This
>request is mostly for them, but anyone who would be willing to assist me 
>is welcome to respond.
>
>I am a Los Angeles County Solid Waste Inspector and have been assigned to 
>help generate an "action plan" for our County Board of Supervisors' 
>consideration for the protection of our recycling programs from the threat 
>of Clopyralid contamination.
>
>By tomorrow.
>
>Do any of you have such a document already?? If so, could I review it,
>steal from it, generally get an idea what the structure should look like
>from it???? Please. If not the document, then could anyone please share
>with me the problems you ran into in the process of trying to generate 
>such a document??
>
>Any help would be appreciated.
>
>Deputy P. Christine Urbach, M.P.H., R.E.H.S.
>curbach@dhs.co.la.ca.us
>Environmental Health Specialist III
>L.A. County Health Department, Solid Waste Management Program

>Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2002 11:18:30 -0800
>From: Karin Grobe <KGrobe@pacbell.net>
>Subject: RE: [USCC] County Level Clopyralid Action Plans?????
>To: "'compost@compostingcouncil.org'" <compost@compostingcouncil.org>
>Cc: "'tjones@cdpr.ca.gov'" <tjones@cdpr.ca.gov>
>Organization: Organic Recyclers Anonymous
>
>I am glad to see local government is getting into the act on this issue.  I
>am a consultant but I have been researching the persistent herbicides for
>an article, so I have some suggestions.
>
>I have spoken and corresponded with Dr. Tobi Jones of the Division of
>Registration and Health Evaluation, California Department of Pesticide
>Regulation, (916) 445-3984, tjones@cdpr.ca.gov, who is working with the
>CIWMB and Dow on this issue.  She told me that picloram, the other
>persistent herbicide that wreaked havoc in Washington, has no registered
>uses in California, so the focus is on clopyralid.
>
>Most clopyralid probably enters the green waste stream from applications to
>landscape turf.  To my mind, the first question is, how much
>clopyralid-containing product is sold in your region.  This information
>should be available from Dow.  An article on their website,
>http://www.grrn.org/dow/DOW_Clopyralid_Compost_10-5-01.pdf, lists the
>numbers of gallons sold in the Spokane area.  Ideally, the information
>would be broken down so you would have a list of the clopyralid-containing
>products and the number of gallons sold in your region.
>
>When you have that information, you might try working with landscape
>product suppliers to get them to quit selling the products.  If that fails,
>work with UC extension educators and landscape organizations (California
>Landscape Contractor's Assn., Turf and Landscape Council, etc.) to educate
>them to either quit using the products or dispose of treated clippings as
>solid waste.  Of course it would be preferable to get Dow to remove the
>products from the market, and you should try that first. But the solution
>may have to be more grass-roots(!!!)
>
>There is also the possibility of clopralid entering the compost stream from
>agricultural use of products.  This contamination could affect composts
>made from agricultural wastes, which are typically sold to organic and
>conventional farmers.  Clopyralid is registered for use on mint, beets,
>wheat, asparagus, oats and barley.  Composters typically compost manure, so
>if any of the grain crops are fed to cattle or horses, they would end up in
>the manure. (I believe that is how the compost at WSU was contaminated.)
>  And wheat and oat straw are commonly used in large amounts as a
>carbonaceous composting feedstock to combine with manure.  Also, culls and
>waste products from mint and beet production are typically composted.  If
>any of these commodities are grown in your area, you should work with UC
>extension and grower's associations to get more information, educate, etc.
>
>
>If you have contracts with any compost producers, you should do everything
>you can to get them to test for clopyralid residue, either through lab
>tests, with low detection limits, or through bioassays (growth trials) of
>susceptible plants (peas, beans, tomatoes and sunflowers).  You would thing
>compost facility operators would really be on top of this issue, but I
>talked to one yesterday who told me he is doing growth trials on rye grass,
>which would of course not respond in the least to the clopyralid residue.
>   I have heard that it can take as long as 4 weeks for susceptible crop
>plants to show the affects of the residue.
>Please keep me in the loop, whatever you decide to do.  I would like to
>start a movement towards local government action plans up here in northern
>California, and it always helps to have a model.
>
>Karin Grobe, Organic Recyclers Anonymous, kgrobe@pacbell.net
>____________________________________________
>Compost maillist  -  Compost@compostingcouncil.org
>This list is a service provided by and for members of the US Composting
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>_____________________________________________

Gary Liss
916-652-7850
Fax: 916-652-0485

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