JANUARY 15, 1999

Contacts: Mary Kelly, 512- 474-0811, Texas Center for Policy Studies

Reggie James, 512- 477-4431, Consumers Union

Sparky Anderson, 512- 474-0605, Texas Clean Water Fund

GROUPS CALL FOR BETTER INFORMATION

ON PESTICIDE USE IN TEXAS

In a new report released today, environmental and consumer organizations in Texas are calling for the state to collect more information on pesticide use in order to better protect public health and welfare. "This report shows how little our state government really knows about what pesticides are used, when and where in Texas. That makes it very difficult for them to adequately implement programs to protect drinking water and public health from pesticide exposure," said Mary Kelly, director of the Texas Center for Policy Studies and author of the report.

The report indicates that only general data are available regarding agricultural pesticide use patterns and that even less information is available about other uses of pesticides, such as on golf courses, at parks and in schools. "The lack of easily accessible, site-specific information about pesticide use in Texas makes it difficult, if not impossible, to know if pesticide use is causing environmental pollution or is linked to particular health problems," said Reggie James, the director of the Southwest Regional Office of Consumers Union.

The report contrasts the lack of information on pesticide use with the wealth of public information available on air and water emissions of industrial toxic pollutants. "The industrial toxic emission information has really strengthened efforts to reduce toxic pollution in Texas," said Ms. Kelly. Last year, Texas documented a 41% reduction in releases and disposal of industrial toxics between 1996 and 1998, even though there was a 30% increase in Texas manufacturing activity over that same period. "The more we know about where and what pesticides are being used, the better we can target the limited resources available for pesticide use reduction programs," she added.

Dwayne Anderson, the director of the Texas Clean Water Fund said his organization has been working closely with anglers and citizen groups to reduce the use of aquatic herbicides in lakes throughout Texas. "One of the big problems we identified was that nobody is keeping good track of how aquatic herbicides are really being used, even in lakes that also supply drinking water," said Mr. Anderson.

The groups are calling for state agencies to develop a pesticide use reporting system, especially for those pesticides with the potential to contaminate drinking water. Under such a system, agricultural and non-agricultural pesticide use would be reported on a periodic basis to an appropriate state agency, such as the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, which would compile and analyze the data. Individual homeowners using pesticides would not have to report, but their pesticide use might be tracked by other means, such as data on home-use pesticides sales information.