HILO — The state Department of Agriculture and Department of Health are embarking on a series of initiatives to address concerns about pesticide exposure in Hawaii.
These include reducing a backlog of pesticide-use investigations and lab tests, adding more department staff, increasing training, and expanding Kauai County’s Good Neighbor program to the entire state.
The Good Neighbor program requires companies and farms using spray to report pesticide usage each month and notify surrounding communities of spray dates. It will begin in January.
The DOA also has hired a deputy attorney general to work on pesticide investigations, and plans to hire an additional five investigators next year. DOA chairman Scott Enright said a backlog of 780 cases already has been reduced to 150.
The departments also plan to increase public outreach and education regarding how to report pesticide exposure.
Many of the new initiatives come in response to the Kauai Joint Fact-Finding Report, a publication produced in May with funding from the DOA and Kauai County “to see if we could substantiate claims about pesticide usage,” Enright said.
On Kauai, most concern about pesticides stems from usage by agribusinesses like seed companies.
The final report found that there were “no environmental or public health problems that could be demonstrated at this time,” Enright said during a Wednesday conference call. The report was produced by “an independent group of concerned citizens,” he said.
State health director Virginia Pressler said during the same call that the departments were working to improve collection of current data regarding pesticides.
“We’re trying to get better data going forward,” she said.
“What we really need is longitudinal data (data over time),” Enright said. “That’s what we’re going for.”
To that end, the DOA also contracted with the U.S. Geological Survey for a surface water quality monitoring project, which will take place over the next two years on Oahu and Kauai.
On the Big Island, efforts are ongoing to reduce county usage of spray along roadsides and at public parks.
Enright said that he had met with both state and county departments of transportation, as well as incoming Hawaii County Council Agriculture, Water and Energy Sustainability Committee chairman Tim Richards, to address pesticide spray along roadsides.
“We will be doing that work going forward,” he said.
The Kauai Joint Fact-Finding Report is available at http://www.accord3.com/pg1000.cfm.
Email Ivy Ashe at iashe@hawaiitribune-herald.com.