John Kitzhaber and his inattentive environmental aide Chris Dearth

[December 4th, 2002] On Monday, the Oregon Department of Agriculture issued new rules on toxic metals in fertilizer that state and federal scientists say are too weak to protect Oregonians' health and the environment.

Who's the rogue? Oregon's hands-off governor, John Kitzhaber , and his inattentive environmental aide, Chris Dearth .

"I'm sorry that I became aware of it so late," says Dearth. "I wish that I had gotten involved earlier."

In 2001, based on rising anxiety over the chemical industry's practice of dumping hazardous waste into fertilizer, the Legislature told the Oregon Department of Agriculture to set limits on the levels of toxic heavy metals such as lead and arsenic in plant food. Earlier this year, the department proposed new standards based on a fertilizer-industry study--standards that are far laxer than similar regulations in California.

Behind the scenes, two other state agencies, the Department of Environmental Quality and the Department of Human Services, expressed serious doubts about ODA's proposals. So did the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (see "Heavy Metal Harvest," WW, Oct. 30). Even scientists not involved with the proposal told WW that Oregon should have put in stronger protections.

Dearth says he asked officials at DEQ and DHS to provide facts and figures to disprove the industry study--ammunition he says he never got. But Dearth didn't need to sit around. A little spadework, such as a phone call to the EPA or to regulators in California and Washington, would have given him a rapid education.

Like many of the officials involved, state epidemiologist Michael Heumann hinted to WW he wished the rules were tougher. But he voiced the hope that they will be strengthened in 2005, when they come up for review--and that the state will have conducted its own studies by then. "All we've got to live with right now, unfortunately, is the reality we have," he said.

In the meantime, we'll hold our noses.

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