Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 22, 1991 TAG: 9104220184
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Now U.S. Sen. John W. Warner, R-Va., wants the federal government to ban the pesticide carbofuran.
While it will take further laboratory tests to determine if granular carbofuran killed the birds, Warner has written the Environmental Protection Agency to say the circumstantial evidence is overwhelming.
State game department monitors have found dead birds on every farm they've checked in the past two weeks where corn was being planted with "no-till" equipment in fields treated with granular carbofuran.
Altogether, 40 birds of 12 species, including bluebirds and robins, were discovered on the five farms.
Warner wrote EPA Administrator William K. Reilly on Thursday when the bird deaths became public, urging the agency to move ahead with its longstanding plan to ban the product nationwide.
"The continued delay of the final cancellation concerns me," Warner said.
Ed Clark, president of the Wildlife Center of Virginia in Weyers Cave, said the bird deaths should show the state Pesticide Control Board that the chemical should be banned. The board instituted this spring's monitoring program as a compromise in lieu of a statewide ban.
"It's time for them to put up or 'fess up," Clark said. "They need to get carbofuran off the market or admit they don't have the will to do it."
Farmers using the pesticide on the land where the dead birds were found were following Virginia's application guidelines designed to reduce the product's threat to birds, state officials said.
"We were convinced that no matter what was done, we'd continue to have bird kills," Clark said. "Now we've been proven right."
Warner's letter pointed out that the birds died in spite of "extraordinary education efforts" and special state regulations that were "directed at reducing the risk posed by this chemical."
The chemical has been blamed for the deaths of three bald eagles in the state since 1985. The state took action last year after more than 200 blackbirds were killed by the chemical in cornfields in Essex and Accomack counties.
The pesticide board chose to create a regulatory plan for carbofuran. The plan was written by the chemical's manufacturer, FMC Corp.
"If carbofuran is the culprit, I'd like to see the board take this up again," said board member Jolene Chinchilli, a chemist for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation in Richmond. "I didn't think at the time of our vote last winter that what FMC proposed was adequate."
The board is expected to take up the matter at its meeting next month.
The department hired 10 temporary monitors to examine farms where corn was planted with no-till equipment in fields treated with the granular pesticide. Because no-till planters are pulled across fields that have not been plowed, some believe the pesticide is not covered with enough soil to keep it away from birds.
Granular carbofuran is used to control nematodes and root worms, primarily in corn and peanuts. It also was used to control beetles in potato fields until the Pesticide Control Board canceled that use.
Birds are thought to mistake the carbofuran pellets for grit when feeding in fields, but also can be poisoned by eating insects or plant materials that have absorbed the pesticide.
Meanwhile, adverse publicity linking carbofuran with bird deaths has caused many Virginia farmers to stop using it, said John Johnson of the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation. Those farmers have switched to other products that don't have a record of avian toxicity.
"Contrary to what some people think, farmers don't want to rape and pillage the environment. We don't want to find dead birds in our fields," Johnson said.
by CNB