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Groups appeal failed suit against irrigation district BY WENDY SIPOREN Two environmental groups have appealed their unsuccessful lawsuit against the Talent Irrigation District, aiming to tighten the regulation of pesticides in irrigation canals. Headwaters and the Oregon Natural Resources Council filed an appeal April 2 with the Ninth Circuit Court after U.S. District Court Judge Ann Aiken ruled in favor of the district on Feb. 1. Her opinion stated that acrolein, a moss-killing chemical used by TID that caused a massive fish kill in Bear Creek in 1996, was adequately regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency. She similarly dismissed a motion to reconsider the suit on March 15. The financial burden of the ongoing legal action has already forced the irrigation district to raise its fees $5 per acre to $40, said District Manager Hollie Cannon. They may rise again, he said, depending on the district's needs. "We're being asked to fight a fight for every irrigation district in the west," said Cannon. "If the regulations change we don't mind, but being the lone target of something we have no control over, that's not fair." Pamela Tennity of Headwaters said she has sympathy for TID's financial situation because it is a small district. "It may cost them more money but if they accepted their responsibility they wouldn't be paying their lawyers' fees," said Tennity. "They could be putting the money into a monitoring system." Tennity said the groups are hoping the Ninth Circuit Court will send the case back to District Court in Portland for a full trial so expert witnesses may testify on the issue. The previous decision was based on legal briefs. She says the goal of the suit is to require TID to get a federal pollution discharge permit which would establish a water quality monitoring program supervised by the Department of Environmental Quality. The lawsuit maintains that the permit is required under the Clean Water Act. "No one is willing in Oregon to assess whether irrigation chemicals are transferring out to adjacent streams," said Tennity. "This is such an important issue especially with the additional (fish) listings and the listings going to come in the future." She said a monitoring system would offer scientific evidence of the herbicide's effect on creek health one way or another. "I'd love to hear that acrolein isn't harming fish," she said. "That's what the discharge permit would set up." Cannon said the 1996 fish kill and the resulting lawsuit prompted the district to be more careful in applying the herbicide and to look for better ways to control weeds. "Our main emphasis is on separating our system from the natural system," he said. Over the winter, the district completed eight small piping projects including piping the canal under Gaerky Creek and two locations on Butler Creek. TID is also waiting for final approval to begin a demonstration project using 120 grass carp to control vegetation in the first mile of the Talent canal, beginning at Oak Street in Ashland. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA