Oregon
State Public Interest Research Group opposes Senate Bill 290 in its
current form. We believe that the changes to the Pesticide Use
Reporting System (PURS) included in SB 290-B. It is an unacceptable
compromise of this landmark program.
If
fully funded and implemented, the pesticide use reporting system
originally envisioned in the 1999 legislation would give policy makers
and researchers the tools to know which sources of pesticides threaten
drinking water, salmon habitat, and public health. Private citizens
also deserve information on pesticide use in their communities.
However,
SB 290-B will significantly weaken the quality of data collected since
the reporting area has been dramatically expanded. Researchers have
said time and again that data collected on the watershed scale (as
provided in this bill) will be ineffective for purposes related to the
protection of drinking water, salmon habitat, and public health. In
addition, the program is still slated to sunset in 2009, which means
that it will barely have had an opportunity to function at all before
it could go away completely in a few years.
OSPIRG
was a founding member of the Oregon Pesticide Education Network (OPEN).
That coalition was a leading proponent of the creation of a pesticide
use reporting system in Oregon, which passed the 1999 legislature by a
vote of 88-2 and which has been strongly supported by the public. A
poll taken in 1999 found that an overwhelming 82% of voters supported
the idea, and since then there has been broad-based support from many
demographic groups.
Unfortunately,
the system has been in jeopardy essentially from day one because of a
lack of resources allocated to the program. And while it is encouraging
to now have some funding, the revisions to included in SB 290-B are an
unacceptably weaken the program.
OSPIRG advocates that
Oregon should have a functional pesticide use reporting system, but
unfortunately SB 290-B does not meet this standard. For these reasons,
we are unable to support this bill.
