To the Editor:
So many of us "live for the moment" that we forget that the present moment may be deciding the course of the future moment. Eager to protect their yards, home owners liberally use pesticides in hopes of defeating harmful insects, but forget the detrimental effects these chemical products have on our environment.
Our frequent rains lead to water runoff that contains chemical ingredients from these pesticides. Unfortunately, these ingredients do not magically disappear. Puget Sound Action Team's State of the Sound 2007 report includes a section on storm-water runoff in the water quality chapter. The report states that pollutants in the runoff, including pesticides, impair water quality. Surveys have shown that pesticides levels in our streams and rivers are extremely high and potentially dangerous to environmental health.
Of course, whatever harms the water harms the organisms in the water, including our salmon. Pesticide pollution not only reduces food supply and stream cover, but it directly affects the salmon by working its way up the food chain until it is absorbed into the fish's bodies. Once inside the salmon, the pesticides can damage salmon behavior, growth, and reproduction of the salmon.
Washington has implemented storm-water rules in hopes of regulating run-off pollution (which includes pesticides) from cities and new developments. These rules provide hope for a relatively cleaner system entering streams, rivers, and, eventually, Puget Sound. However, to truly ease the burden of pesticides on the waterways and salmon, we must all do our part to protect environmental health.
As citizens it is our responsibility to see life from a larger viewpoint and diminish our use of pesticides. To save our waters and fish, we can and should make the choice to switch to pesticide-free yards and lands. For further information about the impact of pesticides and alternatives to them, I recommend contacting either Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides (www.pesticide.org), which has a nice sheet on taking care of your lawn without the use of pesticides, or the Washington Toxics Coalition (www.watoxics.org).
Laura Livingston
Federal Way
