Last week the Crier reported a citizen’s complaint about contractors working for Southern California Edison (SCE) spraying herbicide around power poles both along public roads and within the utility easement, and on private property. An SCE representative answered some of the questions and gave readers an update on SCE’s wider wildfire mitigation efforts. At that time, the subcontractor doing the spraying, Pacific Weed Control, had not provided comment by press time but have since.
The original complainant named one ingredient in the mix being sprayed, Esplanade, active ingredient indaziflam. This allowed a reading of the Environmental Protection Agency fact sheet, and a review of the toxicity and the process for quantifying this.
This raised the larger topic of pesticide use and over-use, and the issue that although local spraying around power poles may not pose an immediate threat to people, pets or wildlife, the cumulative impact is difficult to know.
The complainant also asked whether the contracting was awarded in such manner as to encourage over-use, spraying poles that did not have vegetation near them.
The Crier contacted a representative of Pacific Weed Control (PWC), the subcontractor, who preferred to remain anonymous, to get their comments. The representative was a PWC Training and Safety manager.
TC: “Can you tell us anything about the scale of your SCE contract? How many poles sprayed here in Idyllwild? Does the contract pay ‘per pole’?”
PWC: “We’re just one contractor for SCE. The way the ‘pole brushing program’ works is that Edison works with Cal Fire to determine the high fire risk areas, and from that they determine the scope, and SCE contracts out to weed abatement teams. Our job is to clear a 10-foot radius around the base of poles, and 8 feet high. Anything beyond that goes to a tree crew.
“Where the environmental team allows, we spray an herbicide. In some cases, biologists have to go out. Right now, we’re in nesting season so anywhere birds are nesting we can’t work so as not to disturb nesting. The environmental team goes out and surveys ahead of time. Where there are [sensitive] conditions, a biological monitor is with us. Before poles are cleared for us to do any work, whether it is with a weed whacker or herbicide, it all has to be approved first.”
TC: “I have observed poles (Tahquitz View Drive, pole #4446389E) that have been sprayed but are in bare mineral soil with no vegetation nearby. Any comment?”
PWC: Likely there are no weeds around a pole because they’ve been sprayed before. The area is not new to us, not new to Edison’s program. The only difference this year is we’ve been asked to add a blue dye, the equivalent of food coloring, to the spray.”
When asked how may poles in our area are being sprayed, the representative was unable to give a firm number. The contract work is divided into broader districts. Idyllwild falls into the Menifee district that includes Menifee, Banning, Idyllwild and other cities. “The project is continuous. We can’t go out until they’ve been environmentally surveyed and approved for us to work.”
TC: “I understand one of the ingredients in the spray mixture is indaziflam (Esplanade). Can you tell us anything else about the mixture? Other ingredients?”
PWC: “Up in the Idyllwild area we use Esplanade and Milestone [active ingredient aminopyralid]; they’re both pre-emergent.” (Pre-emergent means it prevents plant growth.)
TC: “I can read the data sheet for indaziflam and can put the toxicity in context for readers. A 40-pound dog would have to ingest a half gram daily for a month to have an observable adverse effect. Half that dose leads to no observable adverse effect in the lab, etc. Anything else you can add to this?”
PWC: “There is not nearly that much. I am safety manager, so I’ve gone through the safety sheets; in the hazard assessment it says that with prolonged, repeated use there could be some harm… The owner is QAL (Qualified Applicator Licensed) and several of our team members are trained by, or themselves are QAL, in fact the Idyllwild team are QACs (Qualified Applicator Certified.)
“That being in mind they are well versed; it is a state process. Because of his QAL and because he cares about his team and the environment and the general public, the toxicity of the herbicides that he chooses to use is less than that of table salt. The blue dye is not classified as dangerous, according to OSHA [Occupational Health and Safety Administration]”
TC: “How much herbicide is going on the poles in an application?”
PWC: “Let me ask an applicator… 5 ounces of one, 7 ounces of the other, into a 100-gallon tank. Maybe a gallon around a pole, when we’re allowed to spray at all.”
To put this into perspective, 12 ounces divided by 100 means 0.12 ounces or about 3.4 grams per application. Remember, though, that the packaged product is not 100% pure herbicide. Esplanade is about 20% herbicide, Milestone is 40%. So, the concentration is more like 20% to 40% of that number, or 0.68 to 1.3 gram total herbicide per application. And the two active ingredients are each in smaller doses, which may be simply be “additive” or “synergistic.”
The hypothetical young, healthy 40-pound Lab dog snorting an entire pole’s worth of herbicide daily would be a goner, but if that dog were limited to half a pole a day, they might, at least after a month, show no adverse effect.
As to comparing the toxicity to that of table salt, you may think, “well a dog consuming half a gram of salt a day wouldn’t suffer terribly,” but the contractor is thinking of the diluted mix as applied. An animal would have to drink a gallon to get that dose of active ingredients.
This line of reasoning, however, fails to account for a possible cumulative effect of thousands of poles being sprayed year after year all over our state, country and world, and the buildup in the environment. These herbicides are chosen partly because they are effective for months. The U.S. Department of Agriculture gives half-lives of 32 to 533 days, typically 103 for aminopyralid and over 150 days for indaziflam.
TC: “SCE tells me that contractors must have permission of residents to enter private property and spray past the utility easement. Is that correct?”
PWC: “Yes. We do try to make contact with residents.”
TC: “And that residents may opt out and abate around poles themselves?”
PWC: “Yes.”
SCE representative Reggie Kumar answered a few follow-up questions for the Crier.
TC: “SCE is not brushing all its poles is it?”
SCE: “No, SCE doesn’t brush all of its poles. As part of our 2022 Wildfire Mitigation Plan Update, we plan to perform brush clearing at the base of 134,000 to 170,000 poles. Our pole brush removal work focuses on poles in areas where it will help reduce ignition risk and ensure compliance with California Public Resources Code 4292.”
TC: “Mostly in high-risk areas, (“27% of service area, including Idyllwild”?
SCE: Idyllwild is in the state’s designated high fire risk area.
TC: Is the mission to spray all poles in an area like Idyllwild?
SCE: The goal is maintain clearance around the pole and prevent regrowth. Herbicides are one of the mitigation tools we use to prevent regrowth around utility poles and maintain proper clearance distance.
TC: Are individual poles being selected by SCE and assigned to contractors, or are contractors being sent up to make that judgement and spray as they deem necessary?
SCE: SCE assigns this work to specially trained contractors with a valid applicator license (QAL) from the California Department of Pesticide Regulation.
TC: Is it correct that the green dye is new this year, but the process has been going on for a while?
SCE: A light colorant is added to the herbicide mix to help identify where the treatment is applied within a 10-foot radius around the utility pole. The colorant is photo sensitive and fades within two days, and is meant to help the crews ensure they’ve fully covered the area.
TC: Regarding the scope of SCE’s pole brushing, how many SCE poles are in the Idyllwild area?
SCE: Southern California Edison has more than 3,200 utility poles in the Idyllwild area. One of several ways we manage vegetation is through the careful use of approved herbicides to prevent regrowth around our utility poles. All herbicides used must be registered with the California Department of Pesticide Regulation and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
To return to the mixture used, Aminopyralid is the active ingredient in the other named herbicide, Milestone. It has, according to the EPA, lower toxicity for animals but can stunt common food plants. Cows grazing in fields treated will not experience “adverse effects” but their manure can interfere with plants like tomato, potato, beans, peas, and greens.
The Guardian ran a story on this chemical in 2011. It was first introduced in the United Kingdom in 2005, but removed from the market in 2008 due to damage it was doing to edible crops being fertilized by manure from cows fed silage that had been sprayed.
It was then re-introduced with a “stringent stewardship program,” meaning farmers could still spray fields where animals grazed, but not on fields where hay or silage was grown. Even then some small gardeners and farmers experienced crops withering and deforming.
“Additive effects” from mixtures occur but also synergistic effects, as some chemicals have a greater effect in combination, and these synergies are not always immediately apparent.
The big numbers on pesticides (including herbicides) are 1 billion pounds annually in the U.S., and 5.6 billion worldwide, according to the U.S. EPA Pesticide Industry Sales and Usage 2012-2018 Market Estimates.
California, with only 2 to 3% of the nation’s agricultural acreage, uses 20% of the US total, according to the California EPA Dept. of Pesticide Regulation 2018 Pesticide Use Report Highlights. Thus, although one pole sprayed with a fraction of an ounce of herbicide is unlikely to lead to “observable adverse effects,” we live in a world in which many tons of these materials, and new ones all the time, all with variable ‘half-lives,” are being introduced into the biome we all share with “weeds and pests.”
