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Ōrākei Local Board
08 December
2016
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8-Dec, 2016
Dear
Mr Chairman Colin Davis and Members of the Orakei Local Board Kit
Parkinson, Carmel Claridge, Troy Churton, Toni Millar, Rosalind Rundle and
David Wong
We ask for your support in AC/AT upholding the legacy non-chemical
vegetation management in Ellerslie especially, and implementing the Weed
Management Policy 2013 of spray free streets and parks in Auckland
From as far back as 1988 the Community of Michael Park School
is on record with the Ellerslie Borough Council for expressing our serious
concern about council sprays. You may remember the event of our entire school
being down at Ellerslie Domain for sports day and next day there being a lot of
absentees from school with sick kids showing similar symptoms - headaches, lots
of painful red eyes, stingy tummies, wiped out, general malaise, behavioural.
A parent was aware of the symptoms of chemical poisoning because her
newborn baby had been oversprayed whilst asleep in his pram outside. She
recognised the pattern of symptoms our entire school was displaying and upon
investigation discovered that a spray truck had gone all around the Ellerslie
Domain spraying the streets with Roundup (active ingredient glyphosate) while
our pupils engaged in their sports. This is how the Community of Michael Park
School came to realise the necessity of being proactive against glyphosate/
chemical weed spraying used by Council.
Below is the council record of that event from the Weed
Management Policy 1999, History:
1988
Ellerslie Borough Council suspended all
herbicide spraying pending an investigation into adverse health effects,
following representations by parents and teachers from Michael Park School and
from members of Toxins Action Group. This was followed by a total
ban on herbicide use on roadsides or sports fields.
There
was ongoing objection to chemical spraying and below are some key events;
direct quotes from the Weed Management Policy 1999 :
3.3
Waiheke, Great Barrier
and Ellerslie ‘No Herbicide Use’ Policies
In Ellerslie, in the Maungakiekie Ward,
there is a ban on herbicide use on roadsides and sports parks;
Roadsides: As
a result of presentations to the Council on adverse effects of herbicide use,
and after seeking legal advice, the Council in 1993 voted to use non-chemical
methods of weed control on roadsides. A research report into such methods
concluded that the Waipuna system was the only feasible option at that time;
consequently the Council adopted its use on all roadsides with adequate
accessibility. ... Council staff report that the Waipuna system has
been well-operated and is successful in controlling weed growth.
Performance is monitored once a month, and the occasional performance
lapses have been remedied. The system is more expensive than the use of
herbicides but Council made a decision to accept the increase in cost in order to reduce environmental and
human health effects.
1997 Meeting
of 14th May 1997. Agenda Item: 1997/98 Draft Annual Plan
Submission. The board resolved:
THAT THE STATUS QUO IN REGARD TO THE MAINTENANCE OF PARKS AND
BERMS IN THE MAUNGAKIEKIE WARD CONTINUE, THAT IS, THAT NO TOXIC CHEMICALS BE
USED TO CONTROL VEGETATION
8.3.1.2 Effect of exposure
Most public exposure to herbicides that may be used by Auckland
City is likely to be that of repeated low level doses through inhalation of
drift or through skin contact in areas in which herbicides have been
sprayed, rolled or wiped. For this reason the issue of chemical
sensitivity is of particular importance and is reviewed below.
Dr Ziem (1994) reports common symptoms of chemical sensitivity to
be unusual fatigue, difficulty thinking, impaired concentration, short-term
memory losses, headaches (especially in the sinus area and with sinusitis),
upper or lower respiratory system irritation, generalised aching in muscles,
joints, or connective tissue, unusual thirst, palpitations and irregular heart
beat. In children hyperactivity, attention deficit and behavioural
changes are common.
Another
avenue for toxicity from sprays to enter our bodies are the eyes, and all our
school children had sore, red eyes. The moist surface area readily
absorbs the chemical; also through their mouth as they exerted themselves on
the sports day.
Upon
formation of the supercity in 2010 the legacy Auckland City non chemical
vegetation control was meant to be protected, as evidenced in the Auckland
Transport(AT) document Use of
Agrichemicals in the Road Corridors (undated), in their own
words:
p2 AT is
responsible for weed control in the road corridor. In undertaking this
role, AT currently implements the legacy Council management practices within
each legacy area. Weed control practices varied between Councils with one
using only hotwater and mechanical removal, one using “Biosafe” and
most making use of glyphosate. Questions have been raised regarding the safety
and use of glyphosate for weed control in the road. A map of the legacy
Council areas, Local Board boundaries and spraying methods is attached in
Attachment 1.
p9 Compliance
with the AC Policy is broader than just requiring the AT contractors to comply
with the NZS specs. AT must also consider the other objectives in the
policy.... By continuing to implement legacy practices, AT is
complying with Objective 8…
(bolding
is ours)
However
AT appears to be double-dealing because the yellow/green colour change of
glyphosate can be observed around the streets including in Ellerslie
which appeared to have had a glyphosate spraying in January 2016. The Weed
Management Advisory sought the truth through an Official
Information Act request, which revealed that every second spray in the legacy
‘safe’ areas, is a glyphosate spray added to the Biosafe mix.
See below for an excerpt from the released document:
Bio safe (non Glyphosate herbicide) products are predominantly
used in Central east. This is in accordance with Legacy Auckland City Council
policy.
The mix ratios are 20 litres Bio Safe Concentrate to 300 litres of
water.
For each second round of weed treatment, 2.1 litres of Glyphosate
concentrate is added to the 300 litres of premixed Bio safe product .
(Hana note: this mixture equals 700 mls per 100 litres of water -
the SAME strength of glyphosate- only spraying!! See below for the South
Eastern Arterial Route)
Subsequently
the Weed Management Advisory issued the following press release which details
the covert and insidious way AT has decided to contravene the Council’s
2013 Weed Management Policy.
Media Release – Monday 18 January 2016: An urgent public
investigation and audit is demanded by Hana Blackmore of the Weed Management
Advisory (WMA) after Official information Act documents reveal the extent of a
chemical regime being unrolled across Auckland.
WMA Report
reveals covert chemical spraying in Auckland Streets is pervasive and
entrenched
“We were truly shocked at the insidious way glyphosate use
has spread across the city” she said. “The information detailed in
the OIA material shows Auckland Transport sanctioning and permitting their
contractors to subvert the legacy contracts in such a manner that no-one knows
what is going on” she said.
“Yet they repeatedly state that where non-chemical legacy
methods were being used, they are still being continued.”
The Report shows:
· Swathes of the city
being sprayed 3-4 times a year with glyphosate that is being surreptitiously
added to the ‘organic’ herbicide mix.
· Numerous roads pulled
out of non-chemical treatment and sprayed with glyphosate instead
· Entire areas of the
North Shore and inner city removed from traditional non-chemical treatments and
sprayed with glyphosate instead.
· Hundreds of schools and
early education centres being ‘specially’ treated with glyphosate
instead of ‘organic’ herbicide.
· Supplementary sprays of
glyphosate on a regular basis in all areas of the city
Not
only do we have AT acting deceitfully but Auckland Council’s LTP 2015-25
recommends that use of chemicals be expanded:
Auckland
Council Briefing Note on Weed Management – April 2015
Unpublished briefing paper for Auckland Council’s Budget
Committee. Provides background information to support Long-Term Plan
discussions on weed management methodologies in local parks, especially in
maintaining grass edges. Controversial because it recommends expanding chemical
treatment in parks across the region – contrary to its own 2013 Weed
Management Policy.
To
somewhat mitigate our history of the weed spraying debacle we include an
uplifting excerpt from the Orakei Local Board’s feedback to the
Weed Management Policy 2013:
8. The Board is concerned at the measures to be undertaken with
regard to use of herbicides in residential areas, including protecting the
public from spray mist….. The OLB endorses the view that
communities should be able to ensure that weed control measures do not use
herbicides which are injurious to health such as in controlling growth on grass
berms, and supports those communities which seek to use non-chemical measures.
By way of example, the Ellerslie community has had a long-standing
opposition to chemical spraying.
And
now to move on to the current news surrounding glyphosate, you may be aware
that the World Health Organization and IARC
(International Agency for Research on Cancer) has as recently as 2015
classified glyphosate as a probable carcinogen. So far, over 10
countries have either completely banned or restricted the use of glyphosate.
Two million people across Europe have signed petitions for banning the chemical
in the last 12 months alone. Click here to see all the
countries and cities as at June 2016 that had curtailed or banned glyphosate.
Italy is most recent, most
restricting. Also Malta, Sri Lanka, The
Netherlands, Argentina.
The IARC report has provoked the chemical industry into
fierce and dirty defence action, discrediting eminent scientists and making serious
threats on the more prominent of them - both those who were part of the IARC
glyphosate review team, and over 90 international scientists who came to their
defence after industry-led attacks on their carcinogenicity decision.
Industry swagger is on full display in Washington where Monsanto and
its friends at CropLife America are driving efforts to cut off U.S. funding for
the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on
Cancer (IARC) after IARC scientists declared glyphosate a probable human
carcinogen in March 2015. The industry is also demanding that the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) fully repudiate the IARC classification
and green-light continued use of glyphosate herbicides, which spell billions of
dollars in sales annually to Monsanto and the agrichemical brethren.
Not
only is there industry entanglement in America’s EPA, New Zealand’s EPA is headed up by Alan Freeth,
former CEO of PGG Wrightson. Last year PGG Wrightson took over exclusive
wholesale rights to Monsanto's RU herbicide. The finding that glyphosate
causes cancer is not new. Thirty years ago glyphosate was known to cause
cancer plus a whole raft of other serious conditions, to say nothing of the
debilitating and miserable symptoms that children and adult females (more than
adult males) suffer.
To
conclude, we have shown that Ellerslie has a well substantiated history of
opposition to chemical spraying dating back 30 years and we achieved a legacy
non chemical status for the streets and parks even prior to the Weed Management
Policy 1999. It appears from OIA information, that this agreement
has been breached and in light of the above body of evidence, we are deeply
concerned about the current situation and would urgently like to go back to
having non toxic vegetation management. The use of organic
herbicides, hot water, steam and integrated approaches have been effective and
risk-free. For 20 years Council itself proved that chemical-free public
spaces can be done, and done well! This is not a political issue, it is a
health issue.
1. From
the Orakei Local Board which administers Ellerslie now, we urgently request the
reinstatement of our legacy non chemical status in the streets.
Ellerslie’s parks are non chemical, thanks to the Orakei Local Board
honouring our legacy agreement. We note with appreciation the support of
the Ellerslie
Residents Association Resolution of 2-Sept 2016.
At the AGM of the Ellerslie Residents'
Association attended by some 55 members, the following resolution was passed
RESOLUTION “That this meeting resolves
that the 30 year old legacy ban on the use of chemical sprays in Ellerslie on
the roads, verges, and in the sportsfields be continued and only non-toxic
vegetation control methods be used.”Moved Edgar Henson; seconded Ron
Seeto Carried with one dissenting voice. Jim Fiest asked that his dissenting
vote be recorded.
2. We
urge the Orakei Local Board to proactively support the Resolution that the people of
Auckland have formulated which asks for regional funding for vegetation
maintenance in public spaces eg. streets and parks. It is a regional
health necessity to have non chemical vegetation control; spray mist/drift
knows no boundaries.
Thank
you for your time and consideration
Yours
faithfully,
Leonie Bartrom
Tel:
579 9638
Email:
bestwishestoallofyou@gmail.com
Written for the
Community of Michael Park School
Ps.
Local Boards are recently in receipt of a memo 15-Nov.16 from Barry Potter
Director Infrastructure and Environmental Services which is said, “provides
a brief update on the current practice for weed management in parks and the
road corridor and, improvements that are being made”. We must
consider the integrity of this statement after reading the OIA information and
the LTP briefing note above. Let’s call it what it is - this memo is
fabricating. This is intolerable to honest citizens.
Weed management and vegetation control in the
road corridor is the responsibility of Auckland Transport. AT has continued
to use the same weed control methods as were done previously by the legacy
council organisations. This means that weed control is carried out
using chemicals (synthetic or plant-based), hot water or steam, or mechanical
methods depending on location in Auckland.
If
AC writes thus then we must hold them to it, that the legacy Ellerslie,
Auckland City and North Shore are managed non chemically in the streets as per
their legacy entitlement, and with a pesticide minimisation approach in the
parks. This is a minimum requirement because nobody, anywhere, wants to
be sprayed.
One
eminent person from this Local Board told me, “Personally, I’m not
big on chemical warfare.” We have great expectations of our
Orakei Local Board stepping up to this issue of justice, transparency and
health.
