Official expresses concern over use of 'toxic' pesticides at Wilmington parks, playgrounds

An elected official in New Hanover County is raising questions about the safety of pesticides that local governments use on area parks, school playgrounds and other public lands.

Evan Folds, supervisor of New Hanover County's Soil and Water Conservation District, started an online petition addressed to the "residents of Wilmington and New Hanover County."

In the petition, Folds asks, "Why are we spraying poisons on playgrounds on purpose?"

"Both the city of Wilmington and New Hanover County are maintaining parks and public land using toxic chemicals such as glyphosate and 2,4-D that are known to cause human disease," including cancer, Folds writes in the petition.

The Environmental Protection Agency has said "there are no risks of concern to human health when glyphosate is used in accordance with its current label." But a study published this year by the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health found that "childhood exposure to the world’s most widely used weed killer, glyphosate, is linked to liver inflammation and metabolic disorder in early adulthood, which could lead to liver cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disease later in life."

During a phone interview, Folds said the North Carolina School Children’s Health Act, which requires all public schools in North Carolina to annually notify parents and school staff of the application schedule of what it terms "non-exempt pesticide(s) for the school facility of concern," is routinely violated in New Hanover County.

"I know it's not being followed," Folds said, "because there is no awareness of who's applying what where."

Russell Clark, media relations manager with New Hanover County Schools, said maintenance personnel are supposed to notify schools and facilities being treated with pesticides, and that school principals or their designees are responsible for sending a notification letter to parents and staff before the start of the school year.

Clark said that if additional treatments are scheduled or requested during the school year, principals are supposed to get a 96-hour notice from maintenance, and that after treatment, a notice is supposed to be posted "with 'field recently treated, do not enter' sign" for 48 hours.

Folds said he made public records requests to determine which chemicals are being used on local parks and playgrounds, relying on what he called "purchase orders and application logs."

"This information is not listed anywhere that is publicly available," Folds said. "The city and the county don't have those lists," in part because the work is often done by third-party contractors. "That's a problem."

Folds called the chemicals being used "the worst of the worst," including multiple chemicals that are toxic to bees, something he said is at odds with the city of Wilmington's 2006 designation as a Bee City USA.

In an email, Dylan Lee, spokesperson for the city of Wilmington, said the city follows practices commonly known as Integrated Pest Management, or IPM, that are "defined by the Environmental Protection Agency as an effective and environmentally sensitive approach to pest management. The city minimizes its use of herbicides through alternative practices like mulching, mowing, hand weeding and planting native plants that are less susceptible to pests."

Lee added that "the city’s standard practice is to limit the use of pesticides to the greatest extent practicable."

Citing what he called "multi-million-dollar lawsuits that have been filed in California," Folds said the application of pesticides, which he defines as "any chemical designed to kill living organisms," could one day become a liability concern.

"There's no reason somebody couldn't sue the city right now," Folds said.

Folds acknowledged there are times when the use of certain chemicals are warranted, to control fire ants or poison ivy on a school playground, for example.

And while there doesn't appear to be much of an appetite for it from local governments, Folds said he'd like to see a new approach to managing public land, in part by treating the soil as a living entity, something he said could both reduce the use of pesticides and conserve water.

In addition, he said that turning landfill material into compost and using it on public lands to bolster what's there, instead of using pesticides, could lengthen the life of the New Hanover County Landfill, which Folds said is estimated to run out of space in less than 30 years.

"How much is it worth to not have to ship our trash out of town? That's millions and millions of dollars," Folds said.

Building a new approach to land management, he said, "It's not pretty. It's a challenge. I prefer to think of it as a tremendous opportunity."

Folds said he's had numerous talks with local officials and government staffers on the issue, and while he's found some receptive ears, he's also encountered resistance.

"The status quo is part of it. The budget is part of it," he said.

Folds acknowledged that using an alternative to Roundup, whose active ingredient is glyphosate, might cost twice as much.

"Well, what is it worth to not spray poison?" Folds said.

In an email, Alex Riley, communications and outreach coordinator with New Hanover County, said that, "per our Parks & Gardens team," the county budgeted $40,000 in fiscal year 2022-23 for pesticides "for the 2,900 acres of public space we manage. We use glyphosate in landscape beds, sidewalk cracks, etc. but not on athletic field turf."

Folds said he'd like to see the city and/or county hire what he called a "sutainability officer" to educate and guide local officials, and the public, through what can be a head-spinningly complex issue.

He also said he's guardedly optimistic about a recently announced city-county team-up at Olsen Park in Murrayville, north of Wilmington, a project that will compare two ballfields using "regenerative methods" with three fields getting "conventional management."

"My concern is, the soil is so poor here" — he said "the soil used to establish Olsen Park is the subsoil from Interstate 40 construction" — that the Olsen Park experiment might not show positive results for regenerative practices. If that happens, local governments might say, "Oh, we tried a sustainable approach, it doesn't work."

"A ballfield is different than playgrounds or medians of the highway," Folds said. "And a year, that's not enough time to gauge success."

Tara Duckworth, New Hanover County's parks and gardens director, in an email sent by communications coordinator Riley, said that "we will certainly pay attention to the results of the pilot project … We minimize the use of fungicides and insecticides and continue to research and explore possible 'green' products — but it’s important that they provide satisfactory results."

Lee said "the city does periodically test new products that could further reduce impacts to the environment."

As of Tuesday, the petition Folds started in February had gotten just under 300 signatures, well below its goal of 500. And while Folds said that even a petition with 500 signatures or more would be "toothless," he hopes to use it to raise awareness of what he sees as a vital issue.

"I'm just trying to get the message out," he said.

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Pesticide use on Wilmington parks and playgrounds concerns official