' LIVE VIDEO TONIGHT: Huntington Beach Council Will Consider Initial Results/Costs/Benefits Of Using Non-Toxic Weed Killing-Methods In Its Parks, Medians, Public Facilities...While LB's Council Has Refused Public Requests To Agendize/Discuss The Issue '
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LIVE VIDEO TONIGHT: Huntington Beach Council Will Consider Initial Results/Costs/Benefits Of Using Non-Toxic Weed Killing-Methods In Its Parks, Medians, Public Facilities...While LB's Council Has Refused Public Requests To Agendize/Discuss The Issue


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(Aug. 7, 2017, 10:45 a.m.) -- Tonight (Aug. 7), Huntington Beach City Councilmembers will consider the initial results of a pilot program they directed in May after Irvine City Councilmembers took action on a matter that Long Beach City Councilmembers have refused thus far to publicly discuss: applying non-toxic methods ranging from organic materials to manual means to kill weeds in city parks, street medians and public facilities.

As previously reported by LBREPORT.com, as of July 7, the CA Office of Environmental Health Assessment (OEHHA) lists glyphosate, the active ingredient in the Monsanto-manufactured "Round-Up" herbicide, among chemicals "known to the state to cause cancer" for purposes of Proposition 65. Monsanto says its product is safe, has called OEHHA's action unwarranted based on science and the law and vows to continue its ongoing legal challenge to the state agency action.

At tonight's Huntington Beach Council meeting -- which LBREPORT.com plans to stream LIVE on our front page (www.LBREPORT.com) starting at 6 p.m. -- HB Councilmembers will consider a report by their city's staff on the first 90 days of a pilot program testing alternatives which concludes it would cost between $540,000 and $1,000,000 annually to implement a choice of three alternatives.

HB city staff's update indicates the least costly alternative -- "Manual Weed Abatement & Chemical Free Application" -- would discontinue the use of any chemicals for weed abatement and require City or contract staff to manually abate weeds in the right-of-way and parks. Manual weed abatement is more effective than organic chemical applications and poses no risk to the public."

Manual weed removal (including weed-whacking) is the method consistently advocated for LB parks (along with using weed-deterring mulch surrounding trees) by veteran LB parks advocate Ann Cantrell.

Scroll down for further.

HB Councilmembers acted on May 1, 2017 after two Huntington Beach grassroots groups ("Non-Toxic HB" and "HB for Tomorrow") cited Irvine's example and insisted that their Councilmembers explore alternatives. HB's City Council directed its city staff to implement a one-year pilot program test of alternatives in one HB park and report back to the Council on the initial results within 90 days. Tonight, HB city staff has agendized a memo/report along with a Power Point presentation (agenda item #17, details here.)

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The Huntington Beach city staff report states in pertinent part:

[HB agendizing memo text] Based on direction from the City Council, the Public Works Landscape Division staff began a pilot program on May 25, 2017 in Central Park West. Prior to the implementation of the pilot study, staff met with representatives from the City of Irvine to further understand their program, the results, and all associated costs to implement a "Non-Toxic" program. The City of Irvine stopped the usage of herbicides in its parks and now uses a mix of "cultural practices" and manual labor to control weeds. Irvine utilizes organic herbicides in the right-of-way, mulch in the planters, and has started a six-man dedicated weed crew to manually pull and hoe weeds. This method has resulted in a six percent increase ($1.2 million) annually in the City's landscape budget ($21 million annual budget). Irvine Public Works staff found that it takes four applications of an organic herbicide to kill a weed.

Subsequently, City of Huntington Beach staff selected a site in Central Park to begin the pilot study. The area selected had a variety of weeds most commonly found in the City's landscaped areas. The goal was to use organic chemicals in the same manner that traditional chemicals were used. After the initial three months of the pilot study, staff has come up with three options listed below.

Option 1 -- Application of Organic Chemicals and Hand Weeding in the Right-of-Way and City Parks

Early conclusions from the pilot study indicate multiple or continuous applications of organic chemical to mitigate weeds for an acceptable level of service in the right-of-way and in City parks. Further testing over a longer duration will allow the City to find a breaking point at which the weeds will stay suppressed. Further piloting of this option will enable staff to reach a conclusion on the overall cost of material and labor.

Option 2 -- Application of Organic Chemicals in the Right-of-Way and Chemical Free in City Parks (Irvine Model)

The City of Huntington Beach is comparable in size to the City of Irvine with approximately 583 acres of developed parks. This option would mimic the City of Irvine's model. The City would discontinue the use of any herbicide in the parks and utilize organic chemicals in the right-of-way.

Option 3 -- Manual Weed Abatement & Chemical Free Application

This option would discontinue the use of any chemicals for weed abatement and require City or contract staff to manually abate weeds in the right-of-way and parks. Manual weed abatement is more effective than organic chemical applications and poses no risk to the public.

Next Steps

This study will continue for the next nine (9) months and staff will provide City Council with another update on May 7, 2018. Based on initial findings of the pilot study, staff believes that a prioritized approach to organic pesticides would be used first as long as they are effective at managing pests and are cost effective and review the City's revised IPM [Integrated Pest Management program] to include organic chemicals (..Initial cost estimates for the three options range from $540,000 to $1 million per year; these costs will be fully vetted by the end of the pilot study as staff will have more time to test various methods and come to a solution that works for the community.

In Long Beach, LB's elected Council has held no discussion on the matter but LB's non-elected (Mayor chosen/Council approved) Parks & Rec Commission and its staff did discuss the issue and listened to LB residents (including Ms. Cantrell and other mainly ELB residents.) In or about May 2016, LB parks staff indicated they would test of three alternative substances, and returned about six months later to tell the Parks & Rec Comm'n that in staff's view [paraphrase] the alternatives either didn't work well enough or were too costly.

The bottom line: in LB, nothing has changed. Below is a statement provided to LBREPORT.com on June 27 by City Hall's then-Public Affairs Officer [recently moved on to LB's Port] Kerry Gerot in the City Manager's office:

At this point, the Parks Recreation and Marine Department is monitoring and tracking any direction issued by the State Agency regarding the use of Roundup to see how it will be further regulated and any new requirements going forward. The department currently follows all State and Federal standards and legal requirements necessary for the use of this product and does not use Roundup in any picnic, food serving, sports field or playground areas with the majority of the use in areas such as tree wells, fence lines and road/curb edges where it is not practical or efficient to use mechanical methods.

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Meanwhile, the Long Beach Unified School District halted its use of Roundup in November 2016 and indicates through spokesman Chris Eftychiou that although it will be applying the herbicide during the summer break, it will only do so at schools where there are no other planned summer activities.

In Long Beach, a grassroots Facebook group -- the "LB Coalition for Non-Toxic Parks and Schools" -- has urged the LB City Council to agendize the issue for discussion and action without success. Ms. Cantrell and other members of the public have come to the City Council to urge at least one Councilmember to agendize discussion of the issue. To date, no LB City Councilmember has done so.

[Ed. note: Long Beach residents previously had the right to agendize items themselves for Council action, but in the mid-1990s [during the O'Neill administration and prior to LBREPORT.com], the City Attorney's office agendized an item listed as changing the order of Council business...although it actually erased the previous period allocated to items agendized by the public. A Council majority could restore that right but thus far hasn't done so, and in our opinion restoring the public's right to agendize items should be among election issues in April 2018.]

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Among those advocating an end to using Roundup in LB parks and urging the Council to agendize the issue has been former 5th district Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske, currently mulling a write-in run against her successor, Councilwoman Stacy Mungo.

During the May 23, 2017 LB Council meeting, Councilwoman Mungo (whose district includes the largest park acreage citywide) effectively signaled her view on the use of Roundup (without explicitly taking a position on the matter.) It happened when a 5th district resident, Raman Vasishth, came to the Council podium and indicated that two other residents had wanted to tell the Council (but couldn't remain through the lengthy Council meeting) that Huntington Beach and Irvine had banned Roundup and said Long Beach should use those cities as a benchmark for weed killing. He was partially right; the Irvine City Council voted in 2016 to stop using Roundup and Huntington Beach's Council voted on May 1 do begin its pilot study.

Councilwoman Mungo didn't acknowledge what Irvine's Council is doing (see below), chided the speaker for misstating what Huntington Beach's Council is doing (pilot study) and instead recited what amounts to LB city management's current stance.

"Huntington Beach does not ban Roundup," Councilwoman Mungo said. "They have the same policy we do, that we don't use it in playgrounds. We don't use it play areas. We don't use it in rental spaces. We don't use it on fields. We use it in certain areas that we haven't found another solution for and we are, in certain areas of the park, in El Dorado Park specifically, trying alternatives."

In Irvine, a grassroots group ("Non-Toxic Irvine") first persuaded management/staff at the Irvine Unified School District to stop using Roundup and 2,4 D (another pesticide) and then insisted that the Irvine City Council eliminate the use of all toxic pesticides citywide.

One Irvine's five Council members agendized the item for discussion; roughly 100 people showed up to support of a "non-toxic Irvine"; the Irvine City Council adopted an organic, integrated pest-management program which eliminates synthetic pesticides (like Roundup) and uses manual methods (including weed whacking) and/or organic pesticides to deal with weeds.

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The City of Huntington Beach, which has over 580 acres of community and neighborhood parks and athletic fields, more than 800 acres of public right-of-way (e.g. street medians, parkways, 60,000 city trees, and nearly 1.7 million square feet of facilities), currently uses an integrated pest management program described in HB city staff agendized materials as follows:

[HB Aug. 7 agendizing memo text] The City's Public Works Landscape Maintenance Division follows an IPM Policy for landscape maintenance functions on City property. An integrated approach to pest management represents an industry standard, prioritizing prevention and non-chemical control measures before the use of pesticide controls, in compliance with State and Federal regulations. The IPM method is a systematic approach that uses extensive knowledge about pests and their hosts, such as infestation thresholds, life histories, and environmental requirements to compliment and facilitate biological and other natural control of pests.

The systems and methods used include:

  • Prevention - selecting plants compatible with the site's environment
  • Monitoring - determining pest levels, tolerance thresholds, impact of controls available/used
  • Non-chemical control measures - biological, cultural, and physical
  • Chemical controls - used when other methods fail to provide adequate control before pests cause unacceptable damage, while being mindful of harm to beneficial organisms and resistance and impact on water quality.

Currently the City uses the least toxic pesticides, listed as Level III (Levels range from I to III) as defined by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Pesticides are recommended by a licensed California Pest Control Adviser and applied by a licensed Qualified Applicator pursuant to Department of Pesticide Regulation guidelines.

Facilities maintenance for City public buildings pest management is implemented with similar steps following State and Federal regulations. Facilities IPM guided strategies include prevention measures such as, good housekeeping and sealing points of entry, and mechanical and nonchemical measures that include using deterrents and removal of pests. Pesticide controls are applied when other methods fail and to prevent damage and risk to public health.

LBREPORT.com plans to carry LIVE video of tonight's Huntington Beach City Council discussion of this item on our front page at www.LBREPORT.com. It's agenda item #17. HB City Hall is at 2000 Main Street in Huntington Beach.

Developing.



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