HILO — The Hawaii Island County Council Agriculture, Water, Energy and Environmental Management Committee on Tuesday voted 7-0 to forward Bill 101 to the first of two required council hearings with a positive recommendation.
Bill 101, sponsored by Kona Councilmember Rebecca Villegas, would, throughout a four-year period, ban the use of herbicides in parks and alongside roads, bike-ways, sidewalks, trails, drainageways and waterways owned or maintained by the county. The bill includes a lengthy list of specific chemicals to be banned.
Villegas praised the work of the citizens, former councilmembers and those who prepared the way for her current bill.
“I really feel the time is ripe,” Villegas said. “You can’t deny it anymore, and trying to claim it’s not there just isn’t really plausible.”
Hilo Councilwoman Sue Lee Loy and Councilman Aaron Chung quizzed Autumn Ness, program director of the group Beyond Pesticides, and Sierra Club Hawaii Island Group spokesman Blake Watson, who helped draft the legislation, about specifics in the bill.
County Public Works Director David Yamamoto, when asked by Chung, said his department cut its herbicide use by half.
“But they continue struggling to keep the grass down on the sides of the roads,” Yamamoto said. “Herbicides are the go-to alternative to keep the weeds down.”
Yamamoto said his department will comply with the bill, but it will take a consultant to come in and train his crews, and it might take increased manpower and new equipment.
Yamamoto and Parks and Recreation Deputy Director Maurice Messina said the transition likely will require more money in addition to more manpower. Also, Messina said, the department will look to sports teams and other volunteers to help maintain the fields, and they probably won’t look as “pristine” as they do now.
“We just want to reiterate we will be requesting additional funding for personnel and equipment,” Messina said.
Beekeepers, moms bouncing babies on their laps, organic farmers, flower growers, environmentalists, doctors and concerned citizens, more than 40 in all, relayed their concerns to the committee about herbicides.
Many asked the ban be implemented sooner. Some 265 individuals sent in written testimony, all but two favoring the bill.
Watson cited a litany of health concerns associated with pesticides, including lymphoma, bladder and colon cancer, Parkinson’s disease, depression and disruption of the endocrine system.
Watson, who also created the pesticide list in the bill, cited his landscape-management experience using organic methods as the basis for his understanding of the field and which pesticides should be banned.
“Public-sector usage of carcinogenic chemicals on our roadsides, parks and drainages is an environmental-justice issue,” Watson said.
The bill calls for a transition period starting Jan. 1, with an outright ban being implemented by Jan. 1, 2024. A seven-member “vegetation management transition committee,” appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the council, will monitor the county’s progress during the transition period.
