Musings: Life Lessons

As I watch a starry sky brighten and shift to soft salmon streaks, the slopes of Makaleha blushing, I check my bees, already up and out at first light, and think of Sharon Pomroy, who was just taken off life support, and a message her sister left on Facebook, asking anyone that Sharon had hurt to please forgive her, as she didn't mean it.

Life is short, and can change in an instant. We all hurt each other, and usually, we don't mean it, so perhaps we can do less of it if we try harder. Forgiveness is always good, even if you can't forget.  

Just some basic life lessons that we all keep re-learning.....

I've heard a number of people asking about and talking about the Department of Water's settlement in the atrazine lawsuit. There seem to be a number of misconceptions, including that the lawsuit is related to current Syngenta operations.

I recently did a short article on this for Honolulu Weekly, which I'll reprint here, in hopes of clearing up some of the confusion:

The Kauai County Department of Water could be eligible for $5,000 to $10,000 in settlement funds in a national class-action suit against Syngenta, which produced atrazine, an herbicide detected in groundwater at Lihue and Hanapepe, says Deputy Manager Bill Eddy. The money would be used to cover the costs of testing for atrazine, an endocrine-disrupting pesticide heavily used in sugar cane cultivation.

Though denying any wrongdoing, Syngenta has agreed to create a $105 million fund to settle litigation initiated by the City of Greenville, Ill. The suit claimed Syngenta knew atrazine would enter drinking water supplies, and sought costs to pay for its removal.

Eddy said Kauai County conducts regular water monitoring and atrazine has not been detected since 2007, when it was found in trace amounts in a Lihue water source. “We don’t believe it is currently in wide use,” he said.

It is also used on corn, which Syngenta cultivates on the island’s west side, but officials did not respond to a call asking whether atrazine is being used on that crop. If the settlement is approved, Syngenta would be released from all claims that were or could have been asserted in the litigation for the next 10 years.

However, that does not release Syngenta from liability in any other litigation, just this particular case. It seems to me that this is an example of why the public and the agencies that serve us need to know just what pesticides the big agricultural operations are using.