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[troutbreath]

I noticed a sign on the lower Vedder that you were not to come in contact with the roadside shrubbery due to spraying of a PCP based herbicide. One only needs to look up the MSDS for PCP based herbicides to realize they are highly toxic to fish and other aquatic life. You don't use them near waters containing fish or when rain can wash them into such waterways. Are the people responsible that dumb or inconsiderate to not realize this in there haste to get rid of some blackberry bushes? That is what the sign said. To rid the area of blackberry bushes that will probably grow right back after the chemical has washed into the river.

Here is the link for MSDS on PCP

http://www.uap.ca/products/documents/SharpshooterPlusSolubleHerbicidePCP286232007_001.pdf

read section 12

[dennyman]

trout breath they are that dumb. For instance, people have been complaining about the stench of the raw manure that is spread on the fields in the Chilliwack area. It is a way of farming that needs to be updated but yet no one does anything about it.

[bentrod]

Are there no environmental watchdog groups in BC?  IMO, with the gravel extraction, ag practices, chemical application, development practices and a general lack of any retribution, it's a free for all on the environment up there.  It won't take long and your legs (natural resources) will be cut out from under you. 

[BwiBwi]

people have been complaining about the stench of the raw manure that is spread on the fields in the Chilliwack area. It is a way of farming that needs to be updated but yet no one does anything about it.

Why should it be updated?

[dennyman]

Bwi bwi the reason it should be updated is that it is not aged at all. For instance in the cornfiields just down by the Vibe condos, they get a big honking tanker truck full of crap, and then shoot it over the fields. Raw untreated animal waste. If you go into other farming belts like the Kamloops/Chilcotin, Okanagan area they would never do that. You age the crap and turn it into manure a healthy and less contentious way of growing crops.  The atomized particles from the effluent spray get carried all over Chilliwack and Abbotsford for instance, and get breathed in as part of the air. An article was in some of the daily rags complaining about it, and the degradation to the air qualiity that it causes along with the other industrial pollutants. It is pretty disgusting when it is being done during the growing season, and leads to the gut wrenching stench that people in the valley complain about.

[coyote spooner]

[
Why should it be updated?
[/quote]

It not only stinks, but it makes its way into the water table.  Can't this lead to e-coli contamination?

[Geff_t]

I would suggest you contact the office for the minister of environment and give them the details. This chemical should not be sprayed there.

[wolverine]

 Old farm boy here. It always amazes me when people complain about "farm" smells. People tend to forget that the farms were there long before the housing projects. If all the local farms went away and ended up being turned into subdivisions; where would the produce come from? Too expensive to raise it all in greenhouses, and they are all chemicals anyway. Then the logical place would be from Mexico and who knows what they use for fertilizer.
 

[bentrod]

I completely agree that farms are important.  And, preserving the land is even possibly more important. If people move next door, they have no right to complain about typical farm practices.  With that said, science is always changing.  Things we did yesterday may not be the right things to do today. 

[dennyman]

Did get a little side tracked from Trout Breath's initial post but if the chemical is not being used properly it should be reported.  And with regards to agriculture, I was raised in a rural environment.  Chilliwack has made the decision to expand and grow as a town, and this often puts farms in a bad light as the town encroaches on them. However, what Fraser Valley farmers have also done is to expand and grow their operations into big feedlot operations, for chickens, pigs,and cows to name a few.  Big question is how do you dispose of the tonnes and tonnes of waste in a safe and environmentally friendly manner??  I think it was equated that the animal  waste from Fraser Valley farm operations would be equivalent to a city of 800, 000 people.  Quite a big difference from just having  a half dozen cattle in the pasture and some chickens in the coop.

[troutbreath]

I should have mentioned that it was the District of Chilliwack that was doing the spraying on the dyke road not some farmer. Farmers can get pretty weird though. Especially pig farmers.