A story in the Moncton, NB Times & Transcript over the weekend shows not only that Canadians have acheived a broad consensus that the use of "cosmetic" pesticides is a travesty, but points up the fault lines that appear when citizens try to move forward on important environmental issues.
One of the main questions is whether town or provincial (state) governments should regulate the use of chemicals that are widely used by inexperienced homeowners and are widely suspect to damage water quality in many cities and town as well as harm the microbial life in the soil that is responsible for healthy, low maintenance turf. Towns are worried that chemical manufacturers will sue them over the ban, and that enforcement will be expensive. By acting at a provincial or nationa level, the likelihood of a well funded legal assault on the laws is considerably less.
For the full text of the article click here.
Comments