Win32 Virus Removal

Twenty state lawmakers from Eastern and Western Washington joined in a bipartisan effort to ask the Department of Ecology to reconsider how mosquito districts can spray for the pesky bugs.

The written comment period on the spraying permit ended at 5 p.m. Wednesday, but 15th District Rep. David Taylor, R-Moxee, and 19 other state representatives have asked Ecology officials to take written comments for an extra 30 days.

They also asked to have public hearings in Spokane, Okanogan, Yakima, Chelan, Clark and Whatcom counties after a March 9 hearing in Moses Lake drew hundreds of people concerned that mosquito districts will be limited in their spraying.

Bill Moore, the department official in charge of drafting the spraying permit, said Wednesday that he had received the letter and would give it to Ecology Director Ted Sturdevant to decide whether to extend the process.

Otherwise, department officials are proceeding as if Wednesday was the last day to comment, he said. The goal is to issue a permit in May so that it would become effective by mid-June.

Moore said the permit is intended to allow mosquito districts to spray for adult mosquitoes — a practice the department said federal law currently makes illegal.

Federal law and court cases require the agency to issue a permit any time pollutants, such as pesticides, are released into waterways.

“I was somewhat surprised how prevalent spraying is ... given it’s technically illegal,” Moore said.

“We don’t need a permit to spray for adult mosquitoes as long as it’s not over water,” said Jennifer Mullins, manager of the Leavenworth Mosquito Control District. Mullins said new regulations were supposed to make spraying easier, but that didn’t happen.

“As far as I know, the (U.S.) Department of Agriculture regulates spraying over land,” she said. “As long as you have a license and you’re doing it according to the label, you’re fine.”

The department has interpreted federal court decisions going back to 2001 as meaning a permit is required to spray for mosquitoes, which live and breed in or near water. A permit has been in place to spray for mosquito larvae since 2002, Moore said.

But the existing permit doesn’t allow mosquito districts to spray for adult mosquitoes, he said.

The revised permit is intended to make it easier for districts to spray for mosquitoes carrying diseases such as West Nile virus.

Last year was the worst on record for West Nile in Washington, said state health officials.

The virus killed a Sunnyside woman in her 70s and sickened nearly 40 people, including nine in Benton County. Many suffered severe symptoms, including encephalitis, meningitis or paralysis.

Also, nearly half of the 71 horses infected either died from the illness or had to be euthanized.

Spraying for adult mosquitoes is an important part of the strategy for preventing the spread of the virus in Washington as it is adult mosquito bites that transmit the disease, and even killing a significant number of larvae can still leave a large adult population swarming the countryside.

Although the draft permit allows spraying for adult mosquitoes proven to carry disease, the lawmakers are arguing that’s a reactive strategy when public health demands a proactive one.

“Based on the draft rule, it appears spraying could only occur after a clear and present public health danger is present,” Taylor said. “In other words, allowing reactive mosquito control and not proactive, preventive control.”

What the draft permit doesn’t allow is spraying for swarms of nuisance mosquitoes — those not proven to carry disease — in a way that allows any of the pesticide used to enter public waterways.

Ecology officials said the pesticides used to kill adult mosquitoes also are dangerous to aquatic insects and fish living in streams, lakes and rivers.

The state Department of Health said in a written comment that only a fraction of Washington’s 44 mosquito species get tested for disease, meaning many of the blood-sucking pests could be carrying disease without anyone knowing.

The health department argued that all mosquitoes are potential disease-carriers and said the permit should be revised to eliminate the distinction between nuisance mosquitoes and disease-carrying mosquitoes.

Moore said the department will consider some changes to the permit based on the testimony and comments received so far, but that it was premature to describe any changes in detail.

“We realize we will have to make changes,” he said.

World reporter Rochelle Feil Adamowsky contributed to this article.