As of October 14, toxic pesticide exposures from NSTAR’s spraying private residential property under their electrical lines are no longer speculative. Widespread spraying of herbicides drifted outside the NSTAR transmission rights-of-way (ROWs) in Harwich, MA, exposing a horse farm with 16 horses, a few dogs, and the farm owners and workers. Clare Bergh, the owner of Sea Horse Farm reported that no notification of impending spraying had been delivered to her and that during the spraying the wind was blowing 10 miles per hour with higher gusts. A cloud of herbicide blew over the farm, misting horses, water troughs and hay as well as bystanders. The owner developed an dense rash all over her torso and arms. A horse boarder substantiated Bergh’s observations and reported she could taste the chemical and it caused her mouth to tingle. Her eyes were red and sore after the spraying took place. Click here to watch Clare Bergh’s testimony at the Harwich Board of Selectmen’s meeting on Nov. 17.
A nearby property owner observed the spraying taking place in the resource area of Smelt Creek, a perennial stream running across the NSTAR easement-also a violation of state law. Complaints were reported to town departments and officials as well as a variety of state agencies. MA Department of Agricultural Resources (MDAR) – the state agency responsible for regulating NSTAR and all use of pesticides in MA – didn’t arrive to take test samples for three weeks! By that time there had been two major nor’easters on Cape Cod with heavy blowing rain- one lasting three days, and one with a hard driving rain lasting a day- between the spraying and the investigation by MDAR. “Taking swabs three weeks afterward is kind of a lame way to conduct an investigation,” Bergh said. “They should have been there a day or two afterward.”
Click here to read the letter from MDAR to Clare Bergh –Sit down for this one!
Given the extreme delay in sampling combined with extreme weather conditions and not testing for the major components of the herbicide mixture (only 2 ingredients out of 6), how can it then be concluded that the horse farm was not sprayed, and animals and people were not exposed? The conclusions MDAR has drawn in its report to Clare Bergh are baseless and even ridiculous. Furthermore, it is completely outside of the purview or expertise of MDAR to suggest the alternate reality of exhaust fumes being the culprit. “I’ve been a landscaper for 30 years running gas and diesel equipment, backpack blowers, and lawn mowers, and I never received a dermatitis rash from the fumes” noted Clare in an interview after reading the letter. “Is he a doctor? No. This infuriates me.”
Some of this unfortunate occurrence could have been avoided if NSTAR had only followed its own Yearly Operational Plan (YOP) which requires notification of abutters and if MDAR were actually regulating the spraying they approved for private residential and municipal properties over the Cape’s only water supply. Currently there are no checks and balances in place–no notification to abutters, no oversight, no field monitoring, no documentation of practices available to the public, no public reporting, no well monitoring-public or private. No accountability whatsoever.
Because of a pattern of violations around the Cape and elsewhere in New England and a lack of enforcement of the regulations, the safety and future health of MA residents cannot be assured. The governor isn’t governing and the regulators aren’t regulating. Citizens are left to rely on nothing but their wits. Some actions that will limit personal exposure to NSTAR herbicides can be found here.
See previous MBCC newsletter articles or www.greencape.org for more background on the spraying of ROWs in NSTAR’s service areas throughout New England.
This ongoing chemical trespass saga will find all the parties to the drama including Clare, NSTAR, and MDAR meeting with the Harwich Board of Selectmen on Monday Dec. 9. The Chair of the Board – who has delayed the meeting on the spraying for several week s- is a retired PhD from Ciba-Geigy’s Agricultural Division where his responsibilities included – guess what – testing pesticides and he has several published papers on them. The discussion could get as toxic as the rights-of-way. Stay tuned.
Submitted by Sue Phelan, info@greencape.org