Pesticide permit should be denied

The Salt Lake City Mosquito Abatement District (SLCMAD) is seeking to renew a permit from the Utah Division of Water Quality (UDWQ) to spray pesticides in the Northwest Quadrant, due to the fact that the area includes wetlands of the Great Salt Lake. That permit requires SLCMAD to use Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices which, among many other things, involves using pesticides only as a last resort when other non-chemical strategies have failed. SLCMAD has not come close to exhausting non-chemical strategies and uses massive amounts of pesticides regardless of need, or use of other tactics.

UPHE has been calling for a two-year moratorium on chemical pesticide spraying by the SLCMAD due to pesticide’s effect on human health and the Great Salt Lake ecosystem.

For that and multiple other reasons, we believe SLCMAD is in violation of their permit. That permit is up for renewal and the public may comment against renewing that permit. The deadline for doing so is TODAY, Wed. Jan. 12th.

Please send an e-mail to Don Hall at the UDWQ —  dghall@utah.gov and say that you believe SLCMAD has acted in gross violation of their existing permit, and that you request a public hearing on whether SLCMAD should be allowed a renewal of their permit.

If we can get a public hearing, we can more thoroughly expose all the ways they have violated that permit and should not have it renewed.

Read more about the human health costs of pesticides, and sign our petition for the two-year moratorium on chemical spraying.