A divided San Lorenzo Valley Water District Board of Directors voted Monday, May 8 night to begin applying the controversial herbicide glyphosate in its Olympia Wellfield in Felton.
Board President Gene Ratcliffe and directors Margaret Bruce and Chuck Baughman voted to apply the chemical – labeled carcinogenic by the state of California in March – on a limited basis this summer to “mother plants” of French broom. They said a “super bloom” of the yellow-flowered “invasive” shrub threatens indigenous plant species in the delicate sand hills near Zayante Creek.
The herbicide will be used on a limited basis this year, with monitoring of water quality in nearby Zayante Creek. The board would decide late this year whether to greatly expand or end use of glyphosate.
The three directors rebuffed appeals from directors Bill Smallman and Eric Hammer – and from a majority of a standing-room-only crowd gathered in the district’s Boulder Creek board room – to not use glyphosate in the Felton watershed or anywhere in the 88,000-acre water district.
The successful motion to choose sides in an international debate over use of the world’s most widely used herbicide was made by Bruce.
The 3-2 vote also approved additional provisions added by Bruce that appealed to multiple points of view in the month-long controversy that began a month ago when a citizen member of her environmental committee alerted the public in a letter to the Press Banner that the board was considering using glyphosate.
Bruce responded on April 20 by threatening to remove that committee member, Rick Moran, from a board meeting for speaking too loudly when he objected to her misquoting a letter he sent to the Press Banner.
In addition to resuming use of the herbicide – district manager Brian Lee reported Monday the district had used glyphosate for years, until last year – the board majority also voted to:
- Convene a ‘blue-ribbon’ task force of experts to recommend in six months the best plan to eradicate invasive plant species in the sand hills. This panel would make recommendations whether to use herbicides on a more extensive basis next year.
- Direct staff to estimate the costs of manually removing invasive plants from the Olympia Wellfield, and incorporate these costs in five years of water district budgets
- Apply for a “take” permit, as recommended by U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials, to manage any disturbance to the habitat of the Mount Hermon June Beetle, an endangered species
- Begin an immediate ”hand eradication” program, cutting down but not killing French broom plants, using up to the $25,000 allocated in the current budget
Voting to use glyphosate “will never be any easier than it is this evening,” Baughman told his fellow directors prior to the vote. He rejected a request from the audience to comment on Bruce’s five-part motion.
Earlier about 20 people had spoken out on both sides of the issue for more than an hour. At least another six hours of debate and public comment had occurred in two prior meetings on the issue.
The “blue-ribbon expert panel” had been recommended earlier in the meeting by district manager Lee.
Smallman said he was against any use of herbicides or pesticides in the water district, and Hammer said that before it even considered using an herbicide, the board should consider the findings of the proposed panel of experts and adopt its first-ever integrated pest management plan.
Baughman said that the district’s use of glyphosate should not involve RoundUp or any other Monsanto products.
The final vote came as no surprise. The directors had staked out their positions in meetings last month.
Prior to the vote, Mark Messimer of Felton, a leader of the San Lorenzo Valley Watchdogs citizens group, said he was “bewildered that directors Baughman, Bruce and Ratcliffe would go to battle against world-class science and basic common sense” and advocate even limited use of glyphosate in the San Lorenzo Valley.
Ratcliffe said she favored limited use of glyphosate “as a scientist and a botanist,” and said she felt a “sense of urgency about these menacing plants.” Ratcliffe holds a B.S. in geology from UCLA, and masters in plant science from Cornell University. She wrote to the Board of Elections in 2014 that she had taught water conservation/quality in 2008-2013 at the community college level.
