PG&E Spray Alert!

[Zeno Swijtink]

Feb 27, 2009

Contact: Patty Clary, Director
Californians for Alternatives to Toxics, 315 P Street, Eureka, CA 95501
707.445.5100 ext 205



PG&E Spray Alert!

PG&E is spraying around the base of power poles within county road and state highway rights-of-way throughout the region.

Folks in Westhaven (northern Humboldt County) found PG&E's contractor Trees, Inc spraying poles in a light rain early on President's Day just a few yards above a year-around stream. Neighborhood opposition convinced PG&E to suspend spraying of 24 roadside poles in the Trinidad/Westhaven area but plans to go forward with spraying poles along county roads and state highways throughout our region. PG&E will continue to give property owners the option to not allow spraying on poles located on private property, something renters should be aware of if poles are located on the property they rent.

PG&E is using a chemical mix of herbicides and chemicals that promote the herbicides’ potency. Mixed together and sprayed heavily around the base of poles and out for several feet are:*- Landmark XPx (active ingredients sulfometruon methyl and chlorsulfuron, chemicals so potent that tiny amounts are used),*- Gallery 75DF (active ingredient isoxaben, EPA says its a possible carcinogen and California lists it as a potential groundwater contaminant),*- Accord (active ingredient glyphosate of Roundup infamy) and two chemical mixtures,*In – Place and*Syl-Tac, which promote the killing efficacy of the entire mix. One witness in Westhaven could smell the chemicals from 10 feet away and taste it for an hour after being exposed.

What to do? Contact PG&E at your local office and demand a stop to power pole spraying. Find out if there are plans to spray near your home, work, Californians for Alternatives to Toxics



Californians for Alternatives to Toxics
315 P Street, Eureka CA 95501
707-445-5100
https://www.alternatives2toxics.org
[email protected]

[Sciguy]

I am a chemist and I love the mysteries of chemicals, their molecules and their properties. Yet I have learned a few principles of using chemicals. One is to keep chemicals with potentially dangerous properties away from my body under all circumstances. Here's another principle: even though chemicals make some jobs easy (cleaning, pole spraying) always use mechanical means wherever possible.

The herbicides being used by PG&E have a second insidious effect, beside being poisonous. They take local money and send it off to Dow or Boulder etc. to buy chemicals just to avoid the job that could have been done using local labor and paying local wages to do the same job but with more human labor.

I personally have no stomach for just being in opposition - just saying don't do whatever. I always want to push for the better alternative. In this case, the alternative is simple. Use hand labor with weed whackers a few times per spring and summer to get the same job done. Or better yet, use scythes or sickles. Keep the wages in our community.

Sciguy (Paul Palmer)

Feb 27, 2009

Contact: Patty Clary, Director
Californians for Alternatives to Toxics, 315 P Street, Eureka, CA 95501
707.445.5100 ext 205



PG&E Spray Alert!

PG&E is spraying around the base of power poles within county road and state highway rights-of-way throughout the region.

Folks in Westhaven (northern Humboldt County) found PG&E's contractor Trees, Inc spraying poles in a light rain early on President's Day just a few yards above a year-around stream. Neighborhood opposition convinced PG&E to suspend spraying of 24 roadside poles in the Trinidad/Westhaven area but plans to go forward with spraying poles along county roads and state highways throughout our region. PG&E will continue to give property owners the option to not allow spraying on poles located on private property, something renters should be aware of if poles are located on the property they rent.

PG&E is using a chemical mix of herbicides and chemicals that promote the herbicides’ potency. Mixed together and sprayed heavily around the base of poles and out for several feet are:*- Landmark XPx (active ingredients sulfometruon methyl and chlorsulfuron, chemicals so potent that tiny amounts are used),*- Gallery 75DF (active ingredient isoxaben, EPA says its a possible carcinogen and California lists it as a potential groundwater contaminant),*- Accord (active ingredient glyphosate of Roundup infamy) and two chemical mixtures,*In – Place and*Syl-Tac, which promote the killing efficacy of the entire mix. One witness in Westhaven could smell the chemicals from 10 feet away and taste it for an hour after being exposed.

What to do? Contact PG&E at your local office and demand a stop to power pole spraying. Find out if there are plans to spray near your home, work, Californians for Alternatives to Toxics



Californians for Alternatives to Toxics
315 P Street, Eureka CA 95501
707-445-5100
https://www.alternatives2toxics.org
[email protected]

[Valley Oak]

How about using concentrated salt water or a pad of cement around the pole? How about if the pole is on your property?

Edward

I am a chemist and I love the mysteries of chemicals, their molecules and their properties. Yet I have learned a few principles of using chemicals. One is to keep chemicals with potentially dangerous properties away from my body under all circumstances. Here's another principle: even though chemicals make some jobs easy (cleaning, pole spraying) always use mechanical means wherever possible.

The herbicides being used by PG&E have a second insidious effect, beside being poisonous. They take local money and send it off to Dow or Boulder etc. to buy chemicals just to avoid the job that could have been done using local labor and paying local wages to do the same job but with more human labor.

I personally have no stomach for just being in opposition - just saying don't do whatever. I always want to push for the better alternative. In this case, the alternative is simple. Use hand labor with weed whackers a few times per spring and summer to get the same job done. Or better yet, use scythes or sickles. Keep the wages in our community.

Sciguy (Paul Palmer)

[nicofrog]

Thanks for the HEADS UP!
One of my dearest family friends Mark Lappe' was a member of the union of concerned scientists,and one of the world's top toxicologists before he
died recently. If you google his name you can see how many articles and books he wrote about the dangerous industrial experiment with herbicides, and pesticides, that uses US as Guinea Pigs.
ROUND UP, the friendly "safe " home herbicide is a HUGE experiment in public deception. The company that formulated it a long time ago CHEATED
on the testing parameters, they were caught for cheating, and payed a fine of like a million dollars PERIOD the testing was never re-done correctly
Now it belongs to MONSANTO arguably the most powerful chemical company in the world...and they will protect their right to sell it world wide
and they could sue ME for defamation of character just for mentioning it.
Mark, with his small center for ethics and toxins in Mendocino called Cetos, was able to STOP Mendocino county from spraying along roads.
using this information.
((who knows, now that he has died, perhaps they are at it again??))
Round up does NOT disintegrate,or become inert in contact with soil as they claim on the labels.This much is clear.
We are facing potential drought, and even in good years our creeks and streams are hurting due to many impacts.
ANY AREA THAT NEEDS WEEDS KILLED,CAN BE DEEPLY MULCHED WITH WOODCHIPS this if widely done could increase our aquifer immensely
thus benefiting the entire watershed, and increasing soil quality throughout the county.
I understand that woodchips cannot go around power poles,due to falling hot metal from fuse links,I only mention this in hopes folks using "ROUND UP " will please take it to toxic waste depot,tell them it might be mixed with something(prevents re-use) and get rid of it.
Weeds other name is CREATOR. They made the soil we use to eat and provide a lot of air we breathe. It's time we re-think the "neat" tidy garden.
Thank you all for your thoughts on this important topic.
N. Frog

Feb 27, 2009

Contact: Patty Clary, Director
Californians for Alternatives to Toxics, 315 P Street, Eureka, CA 95501
707.445.5100 ext 205



PG&E Spray Alert!

PG&E is spraying around the base of power poles within county road and state highway rights-of-way throughout the region.

Folks in Westhaven (northern Humboldt County) found PG&E's contractor Trees, Inc spraying poles in a light rain early on President's Day just a few yards above a year-around stream. Neighborhood opposition convinced PG&E to suspend spraying of 24 roadside poles in the Trinidad/Westhaven area but plans to go forward with spraying poles along county roads and state highways throughout our region. PG&E will continue to give property owners the option to not allow spraying on poles located on private property, something renters should be aware of if poles are located on the property they rent.

PG&E is using a chemical mix of herbicides and chemicals that promote the herbicides’ potency. Mixed together and sprayed heavily around the base of poles and out for several feet are:*- Landmark XPx (active ingredients sulfometruon methyl and chlorsulfuron, chemicals so potent that tiny amounts are used),*- Gallery 75DF (active ingredient isoxaben, EPA says its a possible carcinogen and California lists it as a potential groundwater contaminant),*- Accord (active ingredient glyphosate of Roundup infamy) and two chemical mixtures,*In – Place and*Syl-Tac, which promote the killing efficacy of the entire mix. One witness in Westhaven could smell the chemicals from 10 feet away and taste it for an hour after being exposed.

What to do? Contact PG&E at your local office and demand a stop to power pole spraying. Find out if there are plans to spray near your home, work, Californians for Alternatives to Toxics



Californians for Alternatives to Toxics
315 P Street, Eureka CA 95501
707-445-5100
Californians for Alternatives to Toxics
[email protected]

[Dynamique]

Several gardening supply magazines carry a clever "mulch" disk made of recycled shredded rubber. These disks have a hole in the middle and fit around the base of the tree. They can be trimmed with snips if needed.

PG&E, along with other utilities, should commission the production of these disks sized for use at the base of their utility poles. Once they are installed, they would do the job of keeping weeds abated for at least a decade before they need to be replaced.

Paying local labor to install them instead of paying chemical companies for their damaging toxin would, as someone else pointed out, help stimulate the local economy.

Feb 27, 2009

Contact: Patty Clary, Director
Californians for Alternatives to Toxics, 315 P Street, Eureka, CA 95501
707.445.5100 ext 205

PG&E Spray Alert!
PG&E is spraying around the base of power poles within county road and state highway rights-of-way throughout the region. ...

Californians for Alternatives to Toxics
315 P Street, Eureka CA 95501
707-445-5100
Californians for Alternatives to Toxics
[email protected]

[Zeno Swijtink]

March 17, 2009

Contact: Patty Clary, Director
Californians for Alternatives to Toxics, 315 P Street, Eureka, CA 95501
707.445.5100 ext 205



PG&E Spray Alert Update

Contractors such as Trees Inc. are spraying copious amounts of herbicide this Spring throughout California on behalf of utility companies including PG&E, the largest owner of utility pole and right-of-ways in the state.

PG&E's contractors are using a toxic mixture of several chemical formulations for control of annual, perennial and woody plants growing at the base of poles and within utility line right-of-ways (See our website for more information).

In some areas of the state, particularly northwest counties, PG&E will not spray without advance notification and the consent of property owners. However, where poles are within right-of-ways belonging to the state, county or city, spraying is conducted without advance notification or posting to warn the public of the presence of toxic chemicals.

According to one source, poles displaying square aluminum tags and a separate 6 digit number are scheduled to be sprayed while poles displaying a circular aluminum tag are manually managed for vegetation. What equipment is on the pole is the determining factor. Apparently little community or environmental exposure has been considered when spray plans are made: Herbicides have been applied in heavily used trails and close to wells and streams.

Find out where spraying is planned in areas you use or where you live, work or go to school. For folks in Humboldt County contact Larry Rumensen of PG&E at 707-577-1026. For others in California, try PG&E at 1-800-743-5000 as a CATs member recently had success getting information (and a live person) that way. Trees Inc, PG&E’s contractor, is another avenue to pursue and can be reached at 1-866-865-9617.

Ask to know where spraying is planned and demand that PG&E stop this unnecessary use of chemicals. Call your city council member or county supervisor, depending on the location of spraying you are concerned about. Ask them to contact PG&E to stop the spraying or, at a minimum, to post notification where herbicides are applied.

PG&E and other utility companies have options, especially mechanical removal of vegetation, which is better for workers, neighbors, and the environment.

#######

For more information, see: Californians for Alternatives to Toxics



Californians for Alternatives to Toxics
315 P Street, Eureka CA 95501
707-445-5100
Californians for Alternatives to Toxics
[email protected]