Update from the LBAM* Presentation with CDFA* in Sonoma:
Last
night in Sonoma we had 2 members of the CDFA, Robert Dowell and another gentleman
(who refused to give me his name), a member of OESHA, the Sonoma County Ag. Commissioner
as well as 5 others from the Sonoma County Ag. Dept...9 Ag. people
in total.
As for the public attendance there were
10 people present. Of those 10,4 of us were outside the quarantined area
and wanted to hear what CDFA had to say about the twist ties/aerial spray. Those
4 were Will Shonbrun, Dawn Daniel, Ann Maurice from Ad Hoc Committee for Clean
Water and myself.
The CDFA presentation was made up of maps,charts
on easels and informational papers and examples of the twist ties; a walk about
presentation. No formal presentation was given.
I expressed my disappointment
in them giving the public one weekday notice to this meeting
and hope that in the future they would give the public more time. All four of
us asked different questions ranging from what the cost of this program in Sonoma
would be to the issue of aerial spraying in Marin, as well as wondering
what occurred in Santa Cruz and Ann specifically asked about the Monterey Bay
Aquarium. She wondered if CDFA had inquired about the 'yellow foam'
found around the Aquarium. She asked the question multiple times and never
received a clear answer.
I think it is certain we made them all very
uncomfortable with our questions and our obvious knowledge on the subject. The
sad part, is there were only 6 people from the public who attended. I was only
able to reach out to 2, one a grapegrower who was very supportive of whatever
needed to be done to 'save the grapes'. I did give her literature but unfortunately
she was already 'sold' on the CDFA program. My hope is that the 4 other heard
enough of what we had to say to stop and at least think about it.
Robert said if people wanted to refuse the twist ties, they could. If everyone
refused, they would have to come up with something else (I don't know what the
something else is).At the end of the meeting he did say that they could look into
using the wasps for Sonoma but that they are usually used for 'medium infestations'
not 'small ones', like Sonoma.
Robert will be getting back to me
on the price of this project. The ballpark figure he gave me when pressing him
for an estimate was $30,000 total for both programs. I told him I had
done basic rough research and that at full retail price
the wasps would cost less than this program. I couldn't contain my disgust of
this program especially in lieu of the budget cuts to our schools and I was descriptive
on how parents are asked to provide copypaper for the schools because of
budget cuts and yet in turn we have a $30,000 program which will not work
and the CDFA have nice new bright white trucks.No money lacking there. By
the way, the CDFA pays gas money as well as lodging for the 30 employees who will
be coming down from Watsonville for 2 days to install the twist ties. I might
have been a bit confrontational with Robert and the Sonoma Ag Dept. personnel and
hope I did not make my colleagues too uncomf ortable...! It's kind of
hard to stay fully composed in front of deceiving cheaters.
On
the issue of aerial spraying... I asked Robert if he could, with all
certainty, look at me in the eyes and tell me that he would feel confident
being under the BAy Area spray zone with his 2 children and
feel fine? His answer was yes.
NEXT STEP for
Sonoma:
To stop the twist ties, it would take man power which
we don't have in place in Sonoma. It would mean contacting the 200+ residents,
educating them and getting them to take the step to refuse the twist ties. Very
difficult and time consuming. I will be writing a letter to the editor about what
I learned last night from CDFA and my disgust in the $$ being spent on a program
that will not work. If I have time I might go to the quarantined neighborhood
and get a feeling from the residents. If they seem positive in stopping the twist
ties, it might be possible to start a 'round robin' (neighbor speaking to neighbor)
and I could help initiate, coordinate and follow up.The twist ties would
go up on the 17th of June.