http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051005/NEWS0105/510050456/1075
October 5, 2005
news-press.com
Study finds herbicides from runoff in
river
Agriculture largely to blame for carcinogens
By KEVIN LOLLAR
KLOLLAR@NEWS-PRESS.COM
SARASOTA — The Caloosahatchee River is receiving an unhealthy
dose of herbicides, including potential carcinogens, from upstream,
a Naples chemist said Tuesday at Mote Marine Laboratory's fourth
Charlotte Harbor Conference.
Scientists from Mote, universities, research organizations and
governmental agencies have completed the fourth year of a multiyear
study of virtually every aspect of the harbor.
Chemist Judith Hushon, a consulting volunteer at Chemical Consulting
Associates, analyzed South Florida Water Management District data
from 1999 to the present and found that five toxic herbicides
are in the Caloosahatchee.
The herbicides atrazine, bromacil, norflurazon
and simazine might cause cancer in humans; the fifth herbicide,
ametryn, is not considered a potential carcinogen but can cause
liver damage.
Some of the herbicides come from golf courses and residential
lawns, but by far the greatest quantity comes from agriculture.
Origins
"These herbicides are showing up in the water year after
year," Hushon said. "Farmers use them to kill weeds
and kill their crops at the end of the season. It's not a fluke.
We see them every year."
While the four possible cancer-causing herbicides are used on
citrus and vegetables, ametryn is used exclusively on sugar, Hushon
said.
All of the area's cane fields, however, lie south of Lake Okeechobee,
which raised a question: How does it get into the Caloosahatchee?
"Sugar cane can sit in water, but the fields are diked,
and the growers don't want the dikes to break," Hushon said.
"So they pump the water back into the lake, and it comes
down the Caloosahatchee."
Hushon suggested that the agricultural industry be forced to
cut its use of the herbicides and possibly be required to treat
water from their fields.
"At this point, I'd be pretty worried," Hushon said.
"You get your drinking water from the river, but they probably
don't make it through water treatment. However people go swimming,
water skiing, windsurfing and sailing in the river.
"So don't fall in. If you do, keep your mouth shut."
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