After a long legal battle, Montgomery County has fully implemented a pesticide ban on lawns and playgrounds throughout the county. The County says the law promotes public health, since exposure to some pesticides has been linked to serious diseases.
The law bans Weed&Feed products, which combine fertilizers and pesticides in one, and pesticides with only an Environmental Protection Agency regulatory number, with some exceptions. Among other things, it allows products certified for organic gardening, pesticides that eliminate biting insects or plants, diseases, and invasive species. A summary of the products allowed is available on the Montgomery County website. If pesticides are applied, the law mandates that warning signs be put up.
Montgomery County said that it implemented the law in order to “protect the public health and welfare and to minimize the potential pesticide hazard to people and the environment, consistent with the public interest in the benefits derived from the safe use and application of pesticides” on its website. Studies have found that pesticides are effective in the short term at killing off unwanted critters, thereby increasing yield, but some can be harmful to humans and contaminate air, soil, and other vegetation and organisms.
Karen Reardon, the vice president of public affairs for Responsible Industry for a Sound Environment, a national trade association representing pesticide companies, said in a statement that the law leaves Montgomery County residents without adequate tools to tend to their lawn.
“Montgomery County residents now have no realistic options to treat their own property or to have professionals make treatments” using products approved by the EPA and the state of Maryland, Reardon said. RISE spokeswoman Whitney Gray did not respond to two emails requesting comment.
Mary Travaglini, the program manager for Montgomery County’s Organic Lawn and Landscape Program, said in an email that the County used “the best knowledge on organic gardening” in the law. Organic gardening focuses on maintaining healthy plants without the use of pesticides. Research into organic gardening has been mixed. Organic gardening does not produce more nutritious food than food produced with the help of pesticides, a study from 1989 found. Other studies have found that it can increase soil and water quality as well as biodiversity, but produces lower yields and higher consumer prices.
Retailers are not required to take the banned pesticides off their shelves, though. While Montgomery County strongly recommends that they do, it cannot force retailers to stop selling pesticides approved by the state of Maryland. Insead, retailers must display signs informing customers of the new law and alternatives to banned products, Travaglini emphasized. This means that retailers can sell banned pesticides, but customers living in Montgomery County cannot use them.
Montgomery County residents and RISE challenged the law in court after it was passed by the Montgomery County Council, arguing that Montgomery County did not have the authority to implement the ban because state law trumps county legislation. The plaintiffs had an early success in the Montgomery County Circuit Court, but lost in an appeals court after a county appeal in May 2019. Montgomery County was therefore allowed to implement the law.
Article by Joel Lev-Tov of Springbrook High School
Image courtesy of the Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection
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