Thursday, August 27, 2009

PET PEEVE THURSDAY--Too Many Chemicals

Curve sign Recently, we were driving through Wayne County, NY and noticed that all the sides of the roads had once again been visited by the County’s Agent Orange Truck.  At every signpost or guardrail, the county had sprayed an herbicide to kill the weeds—and every other living thing that encroached.

What annoys me the most, is that many of these guardrails are there because they’re over culverts.  Where there’s a culvert, there’s water.  And these little streams all end up at one place:  Lake Ontario.  One of the Great Lakes.  You know, that big puddle of water north of us that is so polluted the male fish have female organs.  The fish are so contaminated they tell people not to eat them (but people still do). 

GuardrailAs it is, all along the lake are orchards.  Wayne County produces a big chunk of the US’s apple crop.  (Also lot of cherries, peaches, corn, and soy beans.)  All those crops are managed with pesticides.  The pesticides leach into the land and water and guess where lots of them end up?  Yeah, that big puddle north of us.

I know it’s expensive to hire a guy to go around the county and weed whack every guardrail and signpost during the summer months, but what is the environmental cost of all those chemicals being sprayed on the roads and waterways?  It seems to me this country is too fond of quick solutions that don’t solve one problem, as much as create too many others.  (Can you say heathcare or immigration?)

I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I want to grow a third eye or sixth finger on either of my hands.

And what’s bugging YOU today?