To the Editor:
If we don’t put chemicals on our yards they will not be in our drinking water.
Our yards, when added together, constitute most of the land in Montgomery County. We can all work together and make vast improvements to our water quality and our health simply by not using conventional weed killers, pesticides and fertilizers on our yards and gardens. Each year in America, about 80 million pounds of pesticides are used on 30 million acres of lawns. When we put these chemicals on our lawns and gardens some are absorbed into our ground water aquifer, and some are carried by rainwater as run-off pollution. The chemicals are then washed into our streams and lakes and reservoirs — that together compromise the sources of our drinking water. Tests show that lawn chemicals are in much of our water supply.
The first national rivers and streams assessment performed by the EPA and released in 2013 found enough fertilizer in more than half of the water nation-wide and up to 71 percent in the East and Mid-West, that it was deemed of poor quality to support life. The USGS also released a study in 2013 that revealed that all of the streams, rivers, lakes and fish and one-half of the well water all had pesticides. So in essence, by contaminating the water we drink these chemicals find their way into our own bodies as well as our children’s.
In a recent study, 44 percent of the people tested had the weed killer glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup) in their blood. We now know that very small amounts of pesticides can adversely affect human health, causing problems as diverse as autism, ADHD, diabetes and cancer. None of us would put these chemicals directly in our children’s drinking water, but in effect, that is what we are doing. The answer is simple: if we do not put these chemicals on our yards, they will not be in our drinking water. Together we can make a difference.
Barbara Hoover
Potomac