(Updated at 3:58 p.m. with a clarification about Monday’s public meeting in Smith River from the Environmental Protection Information Center.)
Conservationists seeking to eliminate the use of “highly toxic pesticides” on Smith River’s Easter lily fields want to give residents and county officials a chance to voice their concerns next week.
Scientists with the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board also want to hear from the public as they continue work to develop water quality regulations for commercial Easter lily bulb production in the Smith River area.
The meeting on Monday will include a presentation from Water Quality Control Board staff on the waste discharge permit process and will give the public a chance to offer testimony.
Representatives with the Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC), the Siskiyou Land Conservancy and the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation will be part of that discussion at 6 p.m. Monday at the Smith River United Methodist Church before going before the Del Norte County Board of Supervisors.
Monday’s public forum will be broadcast live on KFUG Community Radio, 101.1 FM — listen by clicking here.
“We are hoping that affected community members will come to each of the two meetings and help make a compelling case as to why pesticide application needs to be more regulated,” Josefina Barrantes, EPIC’s Del Norte advocate, told Redwood Voice Community News on Thursday. “We want both the water board staff and the Board of Supervisors to hear how the pollution has affected the community so that it can motivate real change.”
The Water Quality Control Board will also go before the Board of Supervisors at their meeting 10 a.m. Tuesday in the Flynn Center, 981 H Street in Crescent City.
The North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board will hold a public scoping meeting from 4-6 p.m. Tuesday at the United Methodist Church in Crescent City. This meeting will also be held virtually. For more information about efforts to develop waste discharge permit requirements for Easter lily bulb production in Smith River, click here.
The two public meetings and the Board of Supervisors presentation coincides with the Water Quality Control Board’s efforts to develop the Smith River Lily Bulb Order. According to Water Quality Control Board Engineering Geologist Brenna Sullivan, the public scoping period for the discharge requirements’ development just opened and will extend until 5 p.m. Nov. 25.
After conducting an initial study for the project, the Water Quality Control Board determined that an environmental impact report is necessary — hence the meeting Tuesday afternoon.
Water Quality Board scientists, EPIC, the Siskiyou Land Conservancy and the TdN are part of a technical advisory group that includes other conservation groups, federal and county officials and lily bulb producers. That group is tasked with guiding the development of the Smith River Lily Bulb Order and began meeting in August.
The group will begin discussing the developing regulations in November and will meet every other month before a public draft of the order is released in early 2006, Sullivan told the Wild Rivers Outpost on Aug. 30.
The Smith River’s coastal plain has produced roughly 95 percent of the world’s Easter lily bulbs as of 2014. About 1,000 acres of land is used for lily bulb production, according to a joint news release from EPIC and the Siskiyou Land Conservancy.
Efforts to address water quality issues associated with commercial lily bulb production in the Smith River began with a series of stakeholder meetings in 2011. In 2013, the Regional Water Board directed staff to develop separate regulatory programs based on specific agricultural commodities and geographic areas.
Conservationists contend that runoff from the pesticides used in lily bulb farming get into the lower Smith River, including its tributaries, sloughs and estuary, contaminating habitat for coho salmon, the tidewater goby, eulachon, longfin smelt and other protected species.
In a joint press release EPIC and the Siskiyou Land Conservancy state that pesticides also drift through the air and exposure can cause eye, skin and respiratory problems as well as cancer and heart disease.
The press release cites a 2016 Smith River Community Health Assessment authored by Siskiyou Land Conservancy Executive Director Greg King and SLC Research Associate Katie Houle stating that residents experienced elevated rates of “more than a dozen medical afflictions” after moving to Smith River. Those maladies include chronic cough, rashes, ear problems, neurological disorders and cancer.
In the survey’s executive summary, King and Houle state that their findings cannot directly link Smith River residents’ health conditions to pesticide exposure. However, they urge federal, state and local agencies to conduct further investigation.
According to Rachel McCain, the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation’s director of natural resources, who is on the advisory group, the Smith River Lily Bulb Order is part of the Water Quality Control Board’s irrigated lands program. Agricultural orders also exist for the cannabis, dairy and wine industries as well as for the Scott River and Shasta River watersheds, she told the Outpost.
McCain noted that the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation will assist the Water Quality Control Board in determining the Lily Bulb Order’s potential impact on cultural resources. These include former village sites and sensitive gathering areas, she said.
