Letter to the Editor
The Southampton Press
9/20/02
[re. amounts of chemicals used and 'inert' ingredients]
As regards last week's article ("Bridge Chemical Use Criticized" 9/12/02), Mr. John Raynor tries raising a red herring as usual to avoid the reality of the figures based upon their own golf course superintendent's report for 2001 showing more use of pesticides and fertilizers when matched against a projection chart in the 1996 Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for Golf at the Bridge by suggesting I was "mixing apples and oranges". Hardly so, Mr. Raynor. Mr. Raynor questioned if I was including "inert" and "active" ingredients. Of course I was. Just as the FEIS did. Just as their own superintendent did. Just as the NYS Pesticide "Registry" does. They measure in "product." Product, such as so many pounds of the fertilizer brand "Scotts 19-25-5" or so many pounds of the fungicide brand "Bayleton" (which contains the fungicide triadimefon, which has degraded into the chemical "triadimenol" that's been detected in Monitoring Well-4). We're talking here about poundage and gallons of "product." And, as far as "inert" ingredients go, in a 1997 seminar, Dr. Michael Surgan, Chief Scientist of the NYS Attorney General Environmental Protection Bureau said that "inerts" can be "as dangerous," or, "more dangerous" than the "active" ingredients themselves.
The EPA says, "pesticides contain both 'active' and 'inert' ingredients…An active ingredient is one that prevents, destroys, repels or mitigates a pest, or is a plant regulator, defoliant, desiccant or nitrogen stabilizer…An inert ingredient is simply any ingredient in the product that is not intended to affect a target pest. For example, isopropyl alcohol may be an active ingredient and antimicrobial pesticide in some products; however, in other products, it is used as a solvent and may be considered an inert ingredient…"
Alarmed by the public's misunderstanding of "inert" and "active" ingredients, the EPA issued a "Pesticide Regulation Notice" in 1997 asking manufacturers to: "voluntarily substitute the term 'other ingredients' as a heading for the 'inert ingredients' " on labels. The EPA did this because: "Many consumers are mislead by the term 'inert ingredient', believing it to mean 'harmless.' Since neither federal law nor the regulations define the term 'inert' on the basis of toxicity, hazard or risk to humans, non-target species, or the environment, it should not be assumed that all inert ingredients are non-toxic."
Now, as far as "organic" or "non-organic" fertilizers go, nitrates are nitrates and they all have an adverse effect on human health.
The draft Master Plan Update released in March 1996 said "no golf courses" in our "deep-water recharge areas". Yet, Heaney and his fellow councilpersons went and voted for the change of zone to allow it anyway, under the pretext that 114 clustered homes (to which the developer was entitled on his 516 acres) would be more polluting. A myth Mr. Heaney has diligently promulgated all along, persuading others to believe it too.
Well, the Superintendent's Report for 2001 says they used 52,260 pounds of fertilizer; 1766 pounds and 647 gallons of pesticides in 2001 . The 1996 FEIS chart says a single golf course and 74 homes would use 29,899 pounds fertilizer and 1420 pounds pesticides yearly. The FEIS chart says 114 clustered homes would use 3, 447 pounds of fertilizer and between 0-785 pounds of pesticides per year. Currently, they are using 15 times as much fertilizer and 2 ¼ times as much pesticides (not even counting the extra 647 gallons) than the 114 homes. Far and away the golf course is more polluting than the 114 homes would have been. Heany's and Rubin's myth has been debunked. Debunked by their own figures. (And, we're not even talking about the 44,000 sq. foot club house with its 15,000 gallon septic tank they now want to add.)
Julie Penny, Co-Chair
South Fork Groundwater Task Force
 South Fork Groundwater Task Force
PO BOX 2360 Sag Harbor, NY 11963
Phone/Fax: 631 - 725 - 6200
Site By: Hamptons Online
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